For several years, Polish cities have been developing documents corresponding to urban mobility plans, particularly relative to their complexity, social participation and prioritisation of means of transport alternative to private car. The Partnership Agreement defines the new strategic framework for planning sustainable urban mobility in Poland, providing intervention directions within the Cohesion Policy, Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy between 2014 and 2020. One of the priorities of the intervention indicated the development of low-emission public transport and other environmentally friendly forms of urban mobility (Programming financial perspective of 2014–2020 – the Partnership Agreement).

The Strategy for Sustainable Transport Development to 2030, adopted by the Polish government in 2019, officially and directly referenced the SUMP concept. This document highlighted the need for urban planning to account for the SUMP idea. In 2022, the Polish government adopted the most crucial document for urban policy – the National Urban Policy 2030.  It is a document focused on the sustainable development of cities and urban functional areas. It clearly states that it is advisable to introduce comprehensive optimisation of urban development planning, considering all identified challenges, including satisfaction of mobility needs or climate change adaptation. A primary direction of measures in this scope is the coordination of mobility and urban spatial planning due to the SUMPs.

To support cities and functional areas in preparing or updating their plans, in 2019, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, and the Center for EU Transport Projects launched the “Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans” pilot, which involved over 30 beneficiaries and was in preparation for the 2021-2027 financial perspective. Within that pilot, the main recommendations for the SUMP preparation were elaborated. In addition, in 2022, under the Technical Support Instrument, the project “Support for Polish Cities/Agglomerations/Metropolitan Areas in the preparation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans” was launched, in which a consultant selected by the European Commission supports 15 Polish cities in the implementation of SUMP.