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Poland is the 9th largest country in Europe

Poland is a parliamentary republic. Its official name Rzeczpospolita Polska (Republic of Poland) dates back to the early 16th century. A "small constitution" which came into force in December 1992, was to define the powers of, and relationship between the Head of State, the Government and parliament, pending the completion of a full revision of the existing Constitution. Under the 1952 Constitution, as amended since 1989, legislative power is vested in the bicameral National Assembly, which is elected for a four - year term, subject to dissolution, and comprises the 100-member Senate (upper chamber) and 460 member Sejm (lower chamber and former unicameral legislature).

The Senate reviews the laws adopted by the Sejm and may propose their rejection. All 100 senators are elected by a majority vote on a provincial basis. Each province is represented by two senators, which the exemption of Warsaw and Katowice, which elect three delegates. In the Sejm, however deputies are elected under a complex system of proportional representation: 391 members are chosen from lists for multiseat electoral districts, the remaining 69 deputies being elected from national lists. The council of Ministers is responsible for its activities to the Sejm and to the President between sessions of the Sejm.

The country is divided into 49 provinces (voivodships), each administrated by an appointed governor. Under reforms introduced in 1990, complete autonomy was granted to the directly-elected local councils.

Surface waters are the third largest form of land use in Poland. Of the total acreage of inland waters, lakes cover about 317,000 ha, while rivers occupy 509,000 ha.

Slightly more than half of all lakes are small with surface area of 1 to 5 ha. They occupy 10,400 ha, only 3.3% of the area of all lakes in Poland. There are 3,500 middle lakes (5 to 50 ha), which cover 37% of the total area. 1,078 large lakes, with area between 50 and 1,000 ha, make up 55% of the total area of lakes.

Among other forms of land use are settlements, transportation, terrain used for extraction of minerals and idle land. This means that the share of roads and railways, residential and industrial construction, strip-mines and idle land is growing.

In the last decade the area of terrain used for transportation purpose increased from 958,000 ha (3.1% of the area of Poland) to 989,000 ha (3.2% of the area of Poland). At the same time the area taken up by settlements increased by 112,000 ha (from 840,000 ha in 1980 to 989,000 ha in 1990). This takes up 3.0% of the territory of Poland. The terrain used for extraction of minerals occupied 37,000 ha in 1980 and 42,000 ha in 1990. This is slightly more than 0.1 % of the area of Poland.

Poland is a country where idle land occupies a minuscule part. We distinguish between natural idle land such as coastal dunes or naked rocks in the higher parts of the mountains and idle land which came into existence as a result of the economic activities of people. Due to these activities the amount of idle land in Poland has increased. The total amount of idle land (natural and man-made) in 1980 was 477,000 ha, which amounted to 1.5% of the total area of Poland, whereas in 1990 it grew to 504,000 ha, 1.6% Of the area of Poland.

Long for-form name: Republic of Poland Type: Parliamentary democracy Capital: Warsaw Administrative divisions: 49 provinces (Wojewodztwa, Singular - wojewodztwo); Biala Podlaska, Szczecin, Bialystok, Bielsko, Suwalki, Bydgoszcz, Chelm, Ciechanow, Czestochowa, Elblag, Gdansk, Gorzow, Tarnow, Skierniewice, Jelenia Gora, Kalisz, Katowice, Zielona Gora, Kielce, Lodz, Wloclawek, Konin, Krakow, Krosno, Leszno, Lomza, Lublin, Nowy Sacz, Wroclaw, Olsztyn, Opole, Legnica, Ostroleka, Pila, Piotrkow, Plock, Poznan, Przemysl, Radom, Rzeszow, Siedlce, Sieradz, Slupsk, Tarnobrzeg, Torun, Walbrzych, Warszawa, Zamosc.

National holiday: Constitution Day, 3 May (1791) Execute branch: president, prime minister, Council of Ministers (cabinet)Legislative branch: bicameral National Assembly (Zgromadzenie Narodowe) consists of an upper house of Senate (Senate) and lover house of Diet (Sejm) Judicial branch: Supreme Court Leaders: Chief of State: President Lech Walesa (since December 1990) Head of Government Prime Minister: Waldemar Pawlak (from October 1993) Internal Affairs Minister: Andrzej Milczanowski Foreign Minister: Andrzej Olechowski Defence Minister: Piotr Kolodziejczyk Sejm Speaker: Jozef Oleksy Privatization Minister: Wieslaw Kaczmarek Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: Marek Borkowski.

Some Political Parties: SLD - leader Aleksander Kwasniewski, PSL, UD (Democratic Union), UP, KPN (Confederation for Independent Poland, BBWR, MN. TSKN, NSZZ "S", (Solidatyty Union), KLD, KKW "Ojczyzna"PSL-PLPC-ZP, NSZZ RI"S".

Poland is characterized by large environmental contrasts. Some natural areas are relatively well preserved in comparison with Europe. This is especially true in the case of the European Lowland (Bialowieza, Kampinos, Polesie, Roztocze and parks located at the seashore) as well as the new being created (Biebrzanski. Mazurski and Bory Tucholskie National Parks. Poland's national parks located in the mountains are not worse than many European parks.

At the same time in Poland there are areas that are the most degradated in Europe: Upper Silesia, the Legnicko-Glogowski District, The Karkonosze and Izery Mountains (including Karkonosze National Park with its forest dying due to acid rain). Poland has 27 areas ecologically endangered, where some indicators of environmental pollution exceed the norms allowable for the life of nature and the human health.

The discharge of pollutants into the water and air, as well as accumulation of wastes on the surface of the ground have recently decreased as a result of the economic recession. The policy of many countries in the domain of environmental protection aims not to allow for repeated increase of pollution in the time of economic recovery. Poles have some hope that the neighboring countries will decrease transborder pollution of the country.

Environmentally friendly technological modernization's of industries, a new political system and a regained sovereignty of Poland do not automatically result in diminishing anthropogenic pressures on nature. The list of basic threats still consists of:

• Excessive chemical pollution of the environment due to the discharge of pollutants, poisons, and fertilizing biogenic elements;
• Changes in land use, damaging the structure of nature;
• Decrease of biodiversity on genetic, species and ecosystem levels;
• Decrease of environment-generating functions of biologically active areas, especially in urbanized and industrialized areas.

In 1992 Poland's long recession bottomed out and the economy began to grow, albeit slowly and still painfully. According to the Polish statistical Office, GDP grew 1% in real terms in 1992 and was expected to grow 2-4 % in 1993. Industry produced 38% of GDP, construction 9%, and agriculture 7% in 1989. The private sector grew 9% in real terms in 1992, in contrast to the shrinking public sector.

The zloty remains internally convertible. The zloty was devalued 8% in August, and is being devalued slowly but steadily though the "crawling peg" mechanism. Unemployment was expected to reach 16% in 1993. Inflation fell again in 1992, from 60% to 44.3%. Further economic growth will depend on the direction of economic reform taken by the new government; many predict that the pace of reform will slow, delaying Poland's economic recovery.