There will be no recording of municipal committees. MPs appreciate the initiative, but they will not change the law.

• The numerous arguments of the Commissioner for Human Rights were to no avail.
• The Parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Regional Policy rejected the idea of preparing a bill introducing the obligation to record meetings of municipal committees.
• There will be no draft. Instead, there is an incentive "to utilize existing legal solutions at the local level that enable increased transparency in the commission's work."

The Commissioner for Human Rights, Marcin Wiącek, asked the chairman of the Sejm Committee on Local Government and Regional Policy, Michał Krawczyk, to consider preparing a draft supplementing the act with an obligation to record meetings of municipal council committees and make these recordings available in the municipal bulletin board and on its website.

In the opinion of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the obligation to record municipal council committee meetings and make them publicly available will have a positive impact on the fuller implementation of the constitutional right to access public information and the principle of transparency in the operations of public authorities. Applications to the Commissioner for Human Rights indicate that the failure to record meetings is a source of numerous concerns among citizens, sometimes requiring investigations.

In a democratic society, it is a fundamental right to know and be informed about what public authorities are doing and why. That's why universal, broad access to public information is so crucial.

- Wiącek argued.

The spokesman argued that in the current situation, residents of some municipalities are encountering resistance from councilors regarding the recording of municipal council committee meetings.

He also pointed out that participation in a meeting of a municipal council committee can sometimes be problematic, as the interested citizen may not know in advance that the matter of interest to him will be discussed at a given meeting, and for various reasons personal participation in the meeting may be impossible.

He added that access to municipal council committee meetings and their minutes guarantee less access to public information than making the recording available in the Public Information Bulletin or on the municipal website. Minutes do not reflect the proceedings as accurately as a recording. For example, information about the statements of specific councilors, their positions, and arguments is omitted.

Citizens' access to this information contributes to building a high standard of transparency in government actions. Citizens are informed not only about the activities of the subsidiary body, but also about its motives and the specific arguments that inform the decision-making process. Its transparency also positively impacts the substantive quality of meetings.

- argued the Commissioner for Human Rights.

In response, MP Michał Krawczyk wrote that he fully shares the view that "transparency in the activities of public authorities, including local government units, is the foundation of civil society and an important element of the implementation of the constitutional right to information", but at the same time informed that at this stage the Territorial Government and Regional Policy Committee does not plan to take a legislative initiative on the matter in question.

However, the Commission recognises the importance of transparency in local government activities and encourages the use of existing legal solutions at the local level that enable increased transparency in the work of the commission.

- added Krawczyk.

As an argument, he cited the opinions of the Association of Polish Cities and the Association of Polish Counties, which argue that broadcasts of plenary sessions of the legislative and control bodies of municipalities and cities are already being carried out and are often not very popular with residents, which raises questions about the justification for extending this obligation to committee meetings.

Local government officials also pointed out that broadcasting committee meetings would generate additional costs and would also involve the risk of privacy violations, especially when discussing individual resident matters, which could lead to allegations of disclosing personal data or sensitive information.

As the chairman of the commission admitted, its members largely shared the observations of representatives of local government circles, pointing to the need to balance the demand for increasing the transparency of public life with the realities of the functioning of local government units.

"They emphasized that transparency and citizen control over the activities of public authorities are fundamental values, and that the current regulations allow for the broadcast and publication of recordings of committee meetings, leaving the decision in this respect to individual local governments, which can take into account their local conditions, needs and organizational capabilities," said MP Michał Krawczyk.