Europe and Its Institutions: Towards a Renewed Polish Approach to the EU

Poland seems on the cusp of winning for itself the status of a leading EU Member State. Over the course of the sovereign-debt crisis, it has successfully held its own in an increasingly intergovernmental EU. That now creates a temptation to ditch its traditional “hedging” approach to the European Commission and Parliament and strike out more on its own. Yet, Poland’s real success in this intergovernmental EU has been in securing the continued openness of EU rules and the integrity of its institutions. Since Poland is still at risk of being sidelined by exclusive forms of intergovernmental cooperation, it needs to find ways to renew the protective influence of the bloc’s supranational institutions rather than to abandon them.