At the beginning of March 2025, the Alumni local government meeting organized by the “PAFF Leaders” program was held in Książenice. The event gathered leaders active in local governments who shared their experiences and improved their knowledge of crisis management.
“One of the basic responsibilities of European countries is to protect population. The objective is to protect people’s lives and health, property and heritage, and natural environment if they are threatened,” Dariusz Dymek, crisis management expert said.
The conversation with Dariusz Marczyński, the director of Population Protection and Crisis Management Department of Home Ministry, focused on the new law on population protection and civil defense. PAFF Leaders asked questions regarding the implementation of the law, as well as shared their suggestions and doubts.
Dariusz Dymek presented new rules of population protection and civil defense that the local governments face under the new act. The participants of the meeting discussed the examples presented by the lecturer.
They also met representatives of civil defense institutions: LTC Piotr Marcinek, Sylwester Witczak of the Volunteer Fire Department Main Board and Krystian Radziejewski, Commander of the ZHP Scout Troop of Pułtusk. They discussed the issues of cooperation with these organizations and investing in joint exercising and training.
The participants of the meeting also learnt about three cases of crisis management in practice.
Przemysław Major, vice mayor of Cieszyn, talked about crisis management after the gas explosion and collapse of a tenement house in Cieszyn. Bartosz Wieliński, the secretary of Środa Wielkopolska County Office, presented the case of crisis related to the water reservoir in Środa Wielkopolska. Paweł Sikorski, the Main Specialist of Security and Crisis Management Department of Zgierz Town Council, spoke about activities after the fire on illegal landfill in Zgierz. An important item on the agenda was also the lecture given by Prof. Weronika Jakubczak of Fire University on international aspects of crisis management. She presented examples of crisis response systems in various states and pointed to those elements that could be copied or adapted to Polish conditions.
The meeting of local government representatives in Książenice made an opportunity to share valuable experiences in an important area of crisis management and to establish contacts. The participants emphasized that “the meeting was inspiring and enabled experience sharing, which is priceless in local government work.” They also pointed that “discussions with experts and practicians were very important and helped to dispel doubts related to crisis management.”
