The Dialectic of Strengthening and Weakening the European Union

Abstract

In this chapter, the author presents Poland’s behavior within the EU. He discusses Warsaw’s position on EU institutional reform in the years 2002–2004. Poland favored strengthening the intergovernmental nature of this organization and after 2005 refused to ratify the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, which it had signed. Subsequently, the Civic Platform and Polish People’s Party (PO-PSL) governments played a constructive role in efforts to overcome the financial crisis in the euro area. Poland adopted changing positions in regard to EU defense policy. It initially criticized the EU’s initiatives, but later it cautiously joined in. Beginning in 2009 it made attempts, jointly with Germany and France, to reinforce the CSDP; later, it advocated unrealistic ideas about creating a European army and it was not, particularly after 2015, interested in overcoming the stagnation of the CSDP. During the immigration crisis, the PO-PSL government showed solidarity with the majority of EU member states, but the succeeding PiS government adopted the opposite stance and rejected the mandatory relocation of illegal immigrants and refugees. The PiS government’s view of the future of the EU also differs from that of the majority of EU countries.