Abstract:

The pandemic has affected the functioning of society. The threat it posed prompted the administration to take various extraordinary measures to counteract virus transmission. The article will analyze selected legal regulations and actions of the administration during the covid-19 pandemic in Poland. The aim is to answer the question of how the introduced laws, administrative actions and applied instruments to fight the pandemic affected the realization of political rights of citizens, related to the principle of open government or transparent administration. Attention will focus on the proactive right to information and the right to participate in meetings of collective bodies of local self-government units in Poland.  Unless there is transparency in administration, citizen control and accountability are impossible and the restrictions introduced are not respected. Article 15zzx COVID-law allowing remote mode of work of the administration does not exclude the provisions on transparency of the authorities. Local self-government bodies were obliged to organize their meetings/sessions in such a way as to enable their participation. The practice of application of the legislation by local governments restricted citizens' access to the deliberations of the constituting bodies, the essence of the right referred to in Article 61 of the Constitution. The study mainly used the formal-dogmatic method.