APPROVING COMMENTARY TO THE VERDICT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT IN OLSZTYN DATED 20 AUGUST 2020 (FILE NO. II SA/Ol 426/20)

Abstract

The commentary asks the fundamental question: May sport or tourism activities be carried out within municipal culture centers? The answer to the question thus posed (after an analysis of not only the grounds of the judgement covered by the commentary and the views of the doctrine, but also of other court verdicts) is negative. Local government units do not have full freedom in defining the scope of tasks assigned to their own organizational entities. A change of the way of performing tasks requires consideration of many regulations that define the limits of the self-government’s organizational authority. Thus, a local government’s cultural institutions may not perform tasks related to sports or recreation. The above thesis was presented in the commentary to the verdict of the administrative court in Olsztyn dated 20 August 2020 (file no. II SA/Ol 426/20) One must keep in mind that cultural activity is a mandatory task performed by units of local government (Article 9(2)). Article 13 of the Act on organization and conduct of cultural activity provides that cultural institutions operate on the basis of their establishing acts and the statutes issued by their organizers. In conclusion, I expressed the view that joint performance of the aforementioned tasks (related to culture, sports, and tourism) within one entity is inadmissible, because financing of cultural institutions, as separate entities, is carried out according different principles than financing of tasks related to sports.

Keywords

• cultural institutions
• sports
• local government
• local government's tasks
• statutes