The politics of differentiated integration : what do governments want? Country report : Poland

Abstract

This report investigates the Polish governments' positions and major political debate patterns over differentiated integration (DI) in the European Union. It does so by combining a broad range of qualitative and quantitative sources, including official government positions, prime minister speeches, and parliamentary debates. While the salience of DI has always been low or very low, negative tones prevailed in the discussion on the DI as a model for the future of the EU. This relates to an almost universal identification of DI as a two-speed Europe model and its perception as a recipe for the exclusion of some Member States from the mainstream of the integration project. However, positions on specific mechanisms and instances of DI such as the Eurozone depended more on various governments' political preferences. Most importantly, while the softly Eurosceptic Law and Justice in practice rejected adopting the Euro, more pro-European governments presented much more positive views on this issue. However, none of them took steps to join the Eurozone.