Poland in Europe

Poland is doing very well in EU, much better than expected! This is a pleasant surprise since Poles were worried that the condition of Polish economy will deteriorate after joining the European Union but this did not happen, just the opposite. Even CNN reported that the Polish president, Kwasniewski praised the year in European Union as one of the best in Polish history.

Read more: Poles are Optimists: One Year after joining European Union

Finally all 25 European Union (EU) countries representing 450 million people adopted the European constitution after the negotiations which took place in Ireland on June 17-18, 2004. As you know from the earlier article Fiasko of EU Brusselss Summit - Position of Poland in Europe the agreement was not easy. During the first EU constitution Brussels summit in December 2003 the countries did not agree on all points of the constitution.

Read more: Nice or Death: Poland's Fight to keep Nice Voting System in European Constitution

Governments of almost all countries EU-members were under enormous pressure to show to the world that they can agree on a consensus and restore the confidence in EU institutions. The earlier elections to European Parliament in almost all countries brought a victory for parties of the opposition and Euro-skeptics. The turnover for referendum was very low, almost everywhere less than 50%. In the new country-members voting apathy was even worse, in Slovakia less than 20% of people voted in Poland about 25%. These recent trends suggested that there is a growing trend in Europe against unification rather that for it and the unification euphoria is gone especially since the economic growth is much lower in Europe than in the USA and unemployment is about 10% as a whole in EU countries. Also in Poland the opposition parties won the elections to European Parliament and almost a half of the seats went to euroskeptics.

Read more: Compromise on European Constitution

Advantages

Open borders to western Europe, no passwords or visas necessary; easy traveling, possibility to move to any member country and find a job everywhere in a membership country (free transfer of persons) - although not all countries would permit East European to work immediately. In some countries, especially where unemployment is high, Poles need to wait seven years before they would be able to apply for a job.

Read more: Advantages and Drawbacks of European Union for Poland