Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

COMMUNAL UNION – one of the forms of inter-self-governmental cooperation, legally defined legal form that means a voluntary structure of cooperation among units of local government – municipalities or counties that jointly execute public tasks. It is task-oriented, as it enables explicit delegation of public tasks to communal union – an entity singled out organisationally, legally and financially, whose main goal is to implement these tasks. It is a form of continuous cooperation among local governments – c.u. are established by the local government units themselves as a consequence of resolutions of their constituting bodies. C.u. have legal personality and their own organisational structure with competences and mutual relations are stated in the statute of the c.u. They can also have competences to decide in administrative matters. Due to this fact they are subject to supervision by the government administration bodies. They can be a union of units of the same category (e.g., among municipalities) or mixed (a union of municipalities and counties). C.u. can be single- or multi-industry. Using the typology of R. Herzog, one can compare c.u. in some aspects to integrated territorial corporation, since it is an organisationally separated (from among the units of local government that established it) entity that has legal personality and implements local governmental tasks [ M. Jęczarek ].

Literature: Z. Leoński, Ustrój i zadania samorządu terytorialnego [The system and tasks of local government], [in:] Samorząd w Polsce: istota, formy, zadania [Local government in Poland: essence, forms, tasks], ed. S. Wykrętowski, Poznań 2008 ■ A. Porawski, Współpraca JST w Polsce: stan i potrzeby [Cooperation among local government units in Poland: status and needs], Poznań 2013 ■ P. Swianiewicz et al., Współpraca międzygminna w Polsce: związek z rozsądku [Inter-municipal cooperation in Poland: a reasoned connection], Warszawa 2016.