Poland’s Mazowieckie Voivodeship could be replaced by three new regions: Warsaw, Płock–Siedlce and Old Polish, the latter combining the Radom area with Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. The proposal was recently presented by Dr Łukasz Zaborowski, an expert at the Sobieski Institute.
According to the author of the concept, a new administrative division would strengthen Warsaw’s position among European metropolitan areas while creating better development conditions for the remaining parts of the region. However, concerns have also been raised about the scale of the challenges and the potential consequences for transport, education, public services and administration.
“There is no reason why offices in the capital should deal, for example, with matters concerning Łosice in the Podlasie area or remote municipalities in Kurpie. It would be better for such issues to be handled by local authorities,” Dr Łukasz Zaborowski, the Sobieski Institute’s expert on regional development and transport, told the Newseria news agency.
Zaborowski is the author of the report Capital, Metropolitan or Warsaw Voivodeship? European Models, Poland’s Territorial Structure and Possible Directions of Change.
“It would be beneficial for Warsaw to focus on higher-level metropolitan functions of national and continental importance. Resources released through administrative reform could support that objective,” he said.
“At the same time, the outer regions, because of their distinct characteristics, needs and development goals, would be governed more effectively if they had self-government structures separate from Warsaw as the national capital.”
Mazovia Is Europe’s Largest Capital Region
With an area of almost 36,000 square kilometres, Mazowieckie is Poland’s largest voivodeship. It is followed by Wielkopolskie, at approximately 30,000 square kilometres, and Lubelskie, at around 25,000 square kilometres.
Mazowieckie also has the largest population. Its 5.5 million residents place it ahead of Śląskie, with 4.3 million people, and Wielkopolskie, with 3.5 million.
In addition to the Warsaw metropolitan area, Mazowieckie contains at least four distinct regional centres. Their principal cities are Płock in the west, Ostrołęka in the north, Siedlce in the east and Radom in the south. Each is separated from Warsaw by areas with lower population density.
According to the Sobieski Institute report, Mazowieckie is the largest capital region in Europe in terms of both population and area.
“It extends for around 150 kilometres from Warsaw in three different directions. There are no capital regions of this size elsewhere in Europe,” Zaborowski emphasised.
In the cases of Paris and Madrid, the maximum distances within their capital regions do not exceed 90 kilometres.
Among the 22 countries analysed in the report, Mazowieckie is the only capital region containing two large and independent cities, Płock and Radom, both located approximately 95 kilometres from central Warsaw.
European capital regions are generally large in demographic terms but territorially compact. Mazowieckie, by contrast, covers an area larger than Belgium.
According to Zaborowski, such a vast administrative unit does not support either efficient regional management or Warsaw’s development as a metropolis of continental importance.
Three New Voivodeships Proposed
The proposal assumes that the existing Mazowieckie Voivodeship would be divided into a compact Warsaw Voivodeship covering the capital, its metropolitan area and its immediate surroundings, a polycentric Płock–Siedlce Voivodeship, and an Old Polish Voivodeship combining the Radom area with Świętokrzyskie.
The capital region would have a population of approximately 3.4 million, or as many as 3.64 million under the broadest version of the proposal. The other two regions would have populations of around 1.29 million and 1.73 million respectively.
“The starting point is the statistical division introduced in 2018 on the basis of socioeconomic factors and the internal diversity of the existing voivodeship,” Zaborowski explained.
“At that time, the Warsaw Capital Region was established at the NUTS 2 level. It covers approximately 10 counties surrounding Warsaw, including the entire metropolitan area. This would constitute the minimum territory of a new Warsaw Voivodeship.”
He added that neighbouring counties bordering the inner metropolitan area could also be considered for inclusion.
“This applies particularly to counties to the south-west, where development patterns and socioeconomic characteristics are most similar to those of Warsaw,” he said.
In Zaborowski’s view, the new Warsaw Voivodeship should also include the area of the airport being developed as part of the Port Polska project and its immediate surroundings.
The project is located where the boundaries of three counties meet: Grodzisk, Sochaczew and Żyrardów. It therefore also lies on the boundary between two NUTS 2 regions.
According to the expert, the proposed division would not only create a more balanced system of voivodeships in terms of size, but would also combine areas with similar characteristics, needs and structural constraints.
“The northern part of Mazowieckie is relatively coherent. The Płock, Siedlce and Ciechanów regions have much more in common with one another than they do with Warsaw,” Zaborowski said.
“In the south, the Radom region and Świętokrzyskie belong to the historical Old Polish industrial region and share similar post-industrial challenges. The new voivodeships would therefore be able to conduct regional policy in a much more coherent way for the areas that form them.”
“Warsaw, meanwhile, should be allowed to operate as a capital metropolis competing with other major European cities, focusing on itself and on higher-level functions,” he added.
Concerns Over Transport and Financial Viability
Critics of the proposal have raised concerns about the organisation of public transport. According to Zaborowski, however, a radius of several dozen kilometres is a standard range for regional public transport systems.
The current boundary between the Mazowieckie and Łódzkie voivodeships already runs approximately 50 to 70 kilometres from Warsaw.
Another concern relates to the financial independence of a new region outside Warsaw. Critics question whether such a voivodeship would generate sufficient revenue to carry out its responsibilities.
“If a new voivodeship were created, the simplest answer would be that Poland would have 17 regions instead of 16. But that is obviously a superficial answer,” said Professor Przemysław Śleszyński of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
“The more important issues are social, economic, infrastructural and, above all, administrative.”
According to Śleszyński, managing a large entity such as Mazowieckie after dividing it into two or more parts could become complicated because of the strong functional links between Warsaw and its surrounding areas.
These links include access to services, commuting patterns and employment relationships.
“If such a voivodeship were created, it would certainly require very significant administrative, legal and management reforms,” he said.
He emphasised that the reform would pose a major challenge in areas such as the division of responsibilities, residents’ access to services, education and support for businesses.
“We have different institutions operating at different levels of territorial organisation. There are municipalities, counties and voivodeships, as well as various intermunicipal associations,” Śleszyński explained.
“There are numerous responsibilities relating to transport, education, public services, support for enterprises and many other matters that are regulated by legislation and executive rules.”
“A great deal would therefore have to change if a separate capital voivodeship were created. However, this is not the only possible solution,” he added.
Administrative Reform Remains Uncertain
Debate over Poland’s territorial division has returned regularly since the last major administrative reform in 1999.
Academics, local government officials, politicians and think tanks have presented numerous concepts, but it remains difficult to assess whether any such reform has a realistic chance of being implemented.
“It is difficult at this stage to predict how the public would respond,” Śleszyński said.
“The media would play a very important role, either supporting or opposing the proposal. The tone adopted by different media outlets would shape the direction of the public debate.”
“It is no secret that some groups would like Poland’s administrative and territorial system to be changed, while others take a more conservative approach and prefer to preserve the current structure,” he added.
“What is needed is a calm, factual, balanced and extended public debate.”
