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Association of Rural Communes of the RP
Who's who at the Union
Historical Background
Activity
Current issues
Proposal of co-operation
Programs
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History
Union of Rural Commune of the Republic of Poland was established in 1925 to continue the activity of an organization that used the same name and united village governments during the existence of the 2nd Polish Republic. The Union defined its objective as supporting the activity of village governments and manifesting their concerns in the national forum.
The first president of the Union of Rural Commune was Aleksander Lednicki. The official organ of the Union was a paper called "The Commune Voice" (Głos Gminy Wiejskiej), which played a unique role in promoting commune autonomy.
In the 1930s, 1,000 villages were members of the Union, and at least 500 representatives of them attended each annual meeting. The Unions representatives took part in work done by Sejm commissions and were members of the State Self-Government Council as well as the Mutual Insurance Company Council.
Modern times
After World War II, in a new political situation, the Union's representatives could not manage to restart their activity. After the revival of local self-government, crowned with the 1990 elections, an idea was born among autonomy supporters to create an organization manifesting the concerns of village governments.
This necessity was confirmed in 1992 at the Conference of Communes Authorities and Town/City Mayors in Poznań. The activity undertaken at that time bore fruit in 1993 when the Union of Rural Communes of the Polish Republic was re-established.
The members of the Poznań-based Union are agricultural communes as well as those situated near big cities. They are inhabited by a total of more than 3 million people, or 8 % of Poland's population.
After the last six years of its operation, the Union is the largest organization of local governments and unites 443 communes (November 2000), which make up 23% of such places in Poland. The smallest member commune is Cisna, with a population of 1,700, whereas the largest one is Limanowa, inhabited by 22,100 people.
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