In the accession process Polish legislation must be adapted to EU legislation in all areas, including the area of renewable energy.

For some time past intensive work has been carried out to adapt rules, regulations and procedures to join effectively the European system. Within strategic documents assigning a course of activities of national development in the field of RES the following should be quoted as the most significant:

* Development Strategy of Renewable Energy Sector (adopted on 5th Sept. 2000,

passed by Parliament on 23rd August 2001) [3]

* Notes on Poland’s Energy Policy to 2020 [11]

* Sustainable Development Strategy for Poland to 2025 [12]

The most essential legal acts include the following:

* The Energy Law [13]

* The Environmental Protection Law[14]

* The RES Law [15] (in preparation)

* The Quota Obligation Ordinance of Purchasing RES Electricity [16]

* The Amendments to the Quota Obligation Ordinance [17]

Amendments to the Energy Law have necessitated the passing of the Quota Obligation Ordinance and subsequently an amendment to this ordinance. According to the ordinance distribution companies are obliged to purchase a certain amount of green electricity, which in the total amount of sold electricity in 2001 exceeded 2.4 % in 2001, and 2.5 % in 2002, the predicted goal being 7.5 % in 2010 (Table 2).

Table 2. Obligatory purchase of electricity from RES for distribution companies

At present a matter of urgent importance is to produce the RES Act which would compose the solid framework for RE investing in Poland. An inter-departmental group for Implementation Development Strategy of Renewable Energy Sector has been appointed to conduct legislation works on the project of RES Act to regulate the fundamental issues in transposition and harmonisation an environmental and energy policy (especially with the Directive 2001/77/EC). Unfortunately, the administrative procedures related to the approval of RES project are complicated and long-lasting. Since September 2003 several versions of the Act have been drafted as a result of discussions held during a number of meetings and conferences on various levels. The creation of national support schemes by introducing Green Certificates system market, subsidies, soft loans, higher prices of RES energy and planning of RES development on national, regional and local levels is taken into consideration, but the current project of the Act does not provide required support for renewable energy development and thus should be reconsidered.