Public-private partnership as an alternative source of financing of public tasks

Aim: The paper touches upon the issue of public-private partnership (PPP) as an alternative form of realising public tasks by the local authorities (Polish short: JST) in Poland.Motivation: Since 2009, the cooperation between the public and private sector has been used to an increasingly large extent in various areas of economy. The first part of the paper presents the legislation concerning the public-private partnership in Poland for the years 2009–2014 that regulates, defines and details the cooperation between both sectors. In order to present the scale of using the private-public partnership framework by local authorities in Poland, the last part of the text analyses reports originating from the Ministry of Economy, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the Public-Private Partnership Institute concerning the public-private partnership industry and concessions in Poland for the years 2009–2014.Results: Analysis of data and its interpretation were used in order to set out the perspectives for the development of the private-public partnership industry in Poland for future years. The statutory obligation to realise local authorities’ own tasks, combined with the limited amount of budget resources, forces the local authorities to look for alternative solutions. In the light of the analyses presented here, the public-private partnership framework may become a solution for the scarcity of financial resources for many communes, poviates and regions in Poland

Reprezentacja małoletniego pokrzywdzonego w przypadku przestępstwa popełnionego przez członków rodziny w prawie polskim

The study presents the current legal regulations and problems with the implementation of procedural rights of a minor victim in the case of crimes committed by members of his family in the Polish legal system. The presented issue concerns the necessity to apply provisions contained in various acts, both public and private law. The author discusses the most important judgements of Polish jurisprudence in the indicated scope, emphasizing, however, that many aspects of the discussed issues, of a procedural nature, have still not been regulated. The conclusions include de lege ferenda postulates concerning, i.a., the transfer to the criminal court of the competence to appoint a guardian ad litem for disadvantaged minors.W opracowaniu omówiono aktualnie obowiązujące regulacje prawne oraz problemy dotyczące realizacji uprawnień procesowych małoletniego pokrzywdzonego w przypadku przestępstw popełnionych przez członków jego rodziny w polskim porządku prawnym. Przedstawiona problematyka dotyczy konieczności zastosowania rozwiązań zawartych w różnych ustawach, o charakterze zarówno publiczno-, jak i prywatnoprawnym. Autor omawia najważniejsze rozstrzygnięcia polskiego orzecznictwa we wskazanym zakresie, podkreślając jednak, że wiele aspektów poruszanej problematyki, o charakterze procesowym, wciąż nie zostało uregulowanych. W konkluzji zamieszczono postulaty de lege ferenda, dotyczące m.in. przeniesienia na sąd karny kompetencji ustanawiania kuratora procesowego dla małoletnich pokrzywdzonych

Demografia polityczna i możliwości dla polityki pronatalistycznej w Polsce

Political demography links demographic findings with public policies aimed at achieving state goals. Current challenge of population aging causes threat to internal financial stability and well-being of the elderly. Aging also questions countries’ international position due to possibly reduced financial capability to maintain geopolitical power, and in extreme situation of lowest low fertility also due to continuous, unstoppable decline in the population size. In case of Poland, aging alone would result in almost doubling expenditure on pensions and healthcare. To respond to social and geopolitical challenges, the government should primarily focus on policies aimed at stimulating births. To foster pronatalist policies, factors affecting fertility may be grouped into five categories: economic, cultural, psychological, infrastructural and unplanned. All these factors influence childbearing behaviour simultaneously. Some of them constitute barriers to fertility (which need to be eliminated) and the others facilitate fertility (and they need to be strengthened). The barriers include financial constraints, individualistic values, financial insecurity, union instability, insufficient support network and lack of family-friendly employment. Identified facilitators in turn include pension system linking benefits with number of children (family pension system) and family-oriented aspirations and values with religion as a vital ingredient. Father commitment to family life impacts both as facilitator and by eliminating barriers

Copper production and trade in Poland during the COVID-19 epidemic

The SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak has created turmoil in domestic economies around the world. The changes are visible in all industrial branches of the economy, including the market of metallic raw materials. The article reviews and analyzes the size of changes in the production and sales of copper and copper products in Poland in 2020, comparing the data in the previous years. The aim of the article is to assess the possible impact of the epidemic and related economic changes on the copper market in Poland

Ontogeny of the expression of catecholamine synthesising enzymes in the female porcine median eminence arcuate nucleus complex (MEARC)

The ontogeny of the catecholaminergic system of the median eminence (ME) arcuate nucleus (ARC) complex (MEARC) has been studied in various animal species but so far, nothing has been learnt about the development of catecholaminergic structures in the porcine MEARC. To study this problem the hypothalami from animals at different ages (six groups) were collected. Nerve structures immunoreactive (IR) for the substances studied [(tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine β-hydroxylase (DβH) and phenylethanoloamine-N-metylthransferase (PNMT)] were found in the pigs at different age periods. In MEARC, TH-IR structures appeared before the 70th day of foetal life, DβH-IR before the 10th week of postnatal life and PNMT-IR only in sexually mature sows