Poland – a first division player in the EU?

Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 45

- Over the last couple of years while the Euro crisis has been deepening, Poland might have been the only EU country that was able to advance its position within the ‘club’.

- The sixth biggest EU nation gained recognition not only because of its growing economy and political stability under the rule of the centre right Civic Platform party but also thanks to Polish government’s EU negotiating tactics.

- Poland’s strong stance against the national interests of the biggest EU member states and its call for solidarity in a time of crisis further enhanced the positive pro-European image of the country during the Polish EU Presidency.

- The demonstrated potential for leadership combined with Poland’s genuine belief in a deeper and wider Europe might one day qualify Poland to the first EU division.

Unlike the majority of the EU countries Poland will probably consider 2011 a good year. While the sovereign dept crisis spread from peripheral EU member states like Greece to the larger economies at the core of the Euro zone and destabilised EU’s heavyweights like Italy and Spain; Poland was the only country to see economic growth. In addition, Poland’s stable economic conditions helped the governing centre-right Civic Platform to get re-elected last October, the first time since 1989 that the incumbent party won the Parliamentary elections. The good economic conditions and the stable political conditions allowed Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his team to manage Poland’s first EU rotating presidency smoothly.

(...)