Functioning of the Mucipial Council during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Considering the rate of spread of the SARS-CoV-19 virus on a global scale, the situation is related with infections with this virus caused unexpected changes in everyday social life. These changes also affected the activities of public administration. The aim of the article is to present the functioning of the commune council during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular referring to the session meetings of this body through the prism of introducing the possibility of a remote mode of meetings. The article first presents the normative patterns (both constitutional and statutory) of the functioning of the commune council as a body constituting a local government unit, then the changes to this pattern were analyzed, made by the Act of March 2, 2020 on special solutions related to prevention and counteractingand combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and emergencies caused by them, taking into account the practical problems resulting from the changes made, and the effects of the changes made were shown. The article concluded with the conclusion that although the legislator's idea of ​​introducing the possibility of remote holding of a session of the commune council was necessary, due to health protection and maintaining the requirements of the sanitary regime, the way of regulating this procedure was not fully thought out and made to the needs of the moment.