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The Council of Ministers (cabinet), or Polish government, consists of ministers, heads of departments of ministerial rank, and heads of central institutions. The Council of Ministers is the body which exercises executive power. Under the Public Administration Branches Act the Prime Minister, who heads the Council of Ministers, enjoys a considerable degree of freedom in decisions concerning its personnel.
The Prime Minister may create, combine, or dissolve departments, change their area of responsibility, and even apply to the President to expand the Council of Ministers to include ministers without portfolio, or coordinators for projects performed by the Council of Ministers, e.g. reform of the educational system or health service.
The chairpersons of certain committees specified in the legislation (e.g. the European Integration Committee), may also be appointed to the Council of Ministers. The composition of the Council of Ministers is proposed by the Prime Minister, who lodges an application to the President of the Republic for the appoinment of cabinet members. The President appoints the Council of Ministers and receives their oath "of loyalty to the Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Poland".
Currently, the Council of Ministers consists of the Prime Minister and 18 members:
Donald Tusk - Prime Minister
Waldemar Pawlak - Vice Premier, Minister of Economy Grzegorz Schetyna - Vice Premier, Minister of Interior and Administration Jacek Rostowski - Minister of Finance Barbara Kudrycka - Minister of National Education Marek Sawicki - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski - Minister of Justice
Aleksander Grad - Minister of National Treasury
Cezary Grabarczyk- Minister of Infrastructure
Bogdan Zdrojewski - Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Radosław Sikorski - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Bogdan Klich - Minister of National Defence
Elżbieta Bieńkowska - Minister of Regional Development
Barbara Kudrycka - Minister of Science and Higher Education
Mirosław Drzewiecki - Minister of Sport and Tourism
Ewa Kopacz - Minister of Health
Maciej Nowicki - Minister of Environment
Jolanta Fedak - Minister of Labour and Social Policy
Zbigniew Derdziuk - Minister, Member of Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers also manages the current policy of state, ensures the execution of the law by issuing ordinances, coordinates and controls the work of government administrative bodies, ensures public order and the internal and external security of the state, protects the interests of the State Treasury, approves the draft of the budget, and supervises its execution. The Council of Ministers also signs international agreements which require ratification, and can revoke other international agreements.
Members of the Council of Ministers are jointly responsible to Sejm for the operation of the government; they can also be individually responsible for the tasks entrusted to them by the Prime Minister or falling within the authority of their ministries. Any breach of the law or crime related to the offices they hold carry the risk of trial before the State Tribunal, a special court appointed by Sejm, in which members of Sejm act as judges.
The Council of Ministers is represented in the different voivodeships of the country by its voivodes or regional governors. There are 16 of them - one for each voivodeship. The voivodes supervise the state administration within the territory of their voivodeship. The officials subordinate to the voivodes, as well as those working in the central offices and ministries, constitute the civil service corps, a politically independent body or administrators. The civil service corps is headed by the Prime Minister.
Alongside the civil service corps, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and all ministries entail political cabinets - teams of advisors working for the government and each ministry on detailed policy guidelines.
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