Road to Metropolis
Efforts to create a metropolis in the center of the Silesian Province were being made for almost 20 years. Throughout this time, local government officials have repeatedly proven that they wanted to work together. They were aware that one – even the largest and richest, but functioning independently – city would not be as strong and would not have as much to offer as a synergy of the potential of many cities. Metropolis GZM is Poland’s first statutory metropolis.
The inhabitants of Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin have long felt that they function in one coherent urban organism and the borders between the cities have been purely conventional. The creation of a metropolis in the center of the Silesian Province has been something natural for years.
The efforts have been made since the beginning of the local government reform of the 1990s. The creation of the Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia in 2006 was an important step. It included 14 largest cities of the Silesian conurbation. The association’s activities laid the foundations for further work on building a strong metropolitan center.
The draft of the act on the metropolitan association in the Silesian Province was submitted to the Sejm on 10 January 2017. Voting in both houses of parliament took place in March 2017: on 9 March in the Sejm, and a week later in the Senate.
The historical and long-awaited moment took place on 4 April 2017. It was then that the act establishing the metropolis in the Silesian Province was signed by the President of the Republic of Poland in Katowice.
On 29 June 2017, the Council of Ministers issued the regulation regarding the creation of the metropolitan association under the name “Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia”. The Metropolis was established two days later – on 1 July 2017. The first Assembly was held on 29 August 2017, while the Metropolitan Management Board was elected on 12 September 2017. GZM structures were built over the next few months. On 1 January 2018, the Metropolis began implementing statutory tasks.
