In spite of the lack of legal regulations on the public consultation available in the Act on radio and television broadcasting, the National Broadcasting Council, hereinafter the Council
- having regard to the social dialogue principle expressed in the Polish Constitution and the provisions of the Act on access to public information dated 6 September 2001, Act on lobbying in the legislation process dated 7 July 2005, Personal Data Protection Act dated 29 August 1997, Act on the public utility activity and volunteer activity dated 24 April 2003, Act on chambers of commerce dated 30 May 1989, as well as the regulations contained in Recommendation of the Council of Ministers “Principles of consultations held during preparation of governmental documents”,
- considering the public consultation standards provided in European regulations, including the “General principles and minimum standards for consultation of interested parties by the Commission” expressed in the Communication from the Commission of 11 December 2002 [COM (2002) 704],
- attaching a large importance to the opinions of TV viewers and radio audiences as well as entities operating on the electronic media market, and non-governmental organisations including civil society organisations and professional and branch organisations, and
- bearing in mind the necessity of ensuring public disclosure and transparency of actions and decisions, their social acceptance, better understanding of opinions and viewpoints, and acting to predict any possible consequences of the decisions taken,
has decided to use the available forms of communication with the respective persons and entities in order to learn their views, and, if appropriate, hold public consultation, and therefore has adopted the following principles of the consultation procedure:
1. The Council runs a consultation procedure on the regulatory policy that is of vast importance for the Radio and Television Broadcasting and the Electronic Media Market. Participation in the Council’s consultation is voluntary and bears no legal consequences.
2. The consultation procedure is instituted by way of posting a notice about the consultation by the Council’s Chairman in the Public Information Bulletin (BIP).
Apart from the notice posted in the Public Information Bulletin, the Council will aim to communicate, to the largest possible extent, the commencement of consultations conducted by electronic means, using other forms of communication with the general public.
The consultation notice is also made available to persons with impaired vision via special facilitating devices.
3. The consultation notice defines in particular:
a. the object of the consultation procedure;
b. the deadline for submitting comments in writing, which may not be shorter than 15 days and longer than 8 weeks;
c. suggested solutions, if possible.
4. During the consultation procedure, such opinions will be considered which contain the following data:
- for natural persons – name, surname and address of residence,
- for legal persons and organisational units without legal personality – name, registered seat and address.
5. The summary of a consultation procedure must be published in the Public Information Bulletin not later than within 30 days of the deadline for submitting written opinions. If the number of submitted opinions makes it impossible to observe the deadline set out in the preceding sentence, the deadline for the consultation procedure summary may be prolonged, however, no longer than up to 60 days.
6. The summary can contain individual opinions of consultation participants if they consent to the processing of their personal data in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act dated 29 August 1997 (declaration specimen forms Appendix 2 to the KRRiT’s Resolution No. 329/2012).
7. If the consultation procedure brings no satisfactory solution, the Council may announce another consultation procedure to be held on the same matter.
8. In justified cases, the Council may in particular also:
- organise a public hearing,
- consult the interested parties directly,
- appoint an expert group with can be joined by the interested parties.
Chairman
National Broadcasting Council
Jan Dworak
