Civic Platform wants to overhaul the constitution, paving the way for greater power in the hands of the PM.
The ruling Civic Platform party has already prepared an amendment to the Constitution but the opposition questions most of the proposed changes, writes the daily Gazeta Wyborcza. The aim of the draft is to diminish the role of the President on the Polish political stage. Civic Platform has already abandoned a radical idea of electing the President by the National Assembly, but continues with the struggle to limit the power of the presidential veto. Changes to the Constitution proposed by Civic Platform also include a concentration of executive power in the hands of the Prime Minister, and making the government exclusively responsible for foreign policy so as to avoid rows between the President and the Prime Minister, thus defining who should represent Poland at EU summits, among other high-profile events. Civic Platform also wants to decrease the number of members of the two chambers of parliament – the Sejm and the Senate, and to increase the role of the Constitutional Tribunal, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. Grzegorz Schetyna, head of Civic Platform’s parliamentary club, claims that next week the party will file the draft at the Speaker of the Parliament and form a constitutional committee.
“Poland flooded with rubbish”, headlines the Metro daily, distributed free of charge. The government wants to force Poles to sort out waste and plans to impose higher fines for fly-tipping and higher fees for waste collection. Although EU regulations require segregation, recycling and combustion of rubbish, almost 87 percent of waste in Poland ends up on rubbish dumps. If Poland does not introduce segregation of paper, metal, glass and plastic by 2015, it can expect heavy fines from the EU, warns the daily. Waste disposal companies which fail to collect rubbish will be punished with 250 euro fine and citizens who dump rubbish in the forest will be forced to do community service.
“Teachers are deaf to child abuse”, writes Dziennik - Gazeta Prawna, quoting a report by the Nobody’s Children Foundation. Every third teacher in Poland admits that they had contact with children who were abused at home but only 45 percent of tutors react if they suspect that a child is abused or neglected and 14 percent never do it, shows the report. However, teachers’ indifference might be even bigger as every fifth teacher refused to take part in the survey, writes the daily.
Meanwhile, most Poles are not aware that men are entitled to paternity leave to take care of their child, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. According to a poll conducted by PBS, Poles have rather traditional views on upbringing. Most respondents claim that men should earn money instead of taking care of children. However, if a man happens to stay at home, he should fulfill all parenting duties: play with a child, change dippers, bath and cuddle their offspring, writes the daily. (mg/jb)