Poland and the European Union
A year later, on 19 September 1989, during the first visit of the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the EEC to Poland, an agreement was signed on trade and commercial and economic cooperation in Warsaw.
During the European Council summit held in Essen on 9–10 December 1994, Member States adopted a pre-accession strategy, defining the areas and forms of cooperation recognized by the EU as essential to speed up integration.
Formal confirmation of the strategy outlined in the White Paper (on the alignment of countries with the requirements of the internal free-market) which was adopted at the European Council Summit in Cannes in June 1995.
The White Paper, and the annual preparatory programs adopted by the Polish government, determined the framework and the relations of Poland with the EU.
The NSI's role was, primarily, to accelerate and direct the work of government institutions as well as helping raise societal awareness of the possible consequences of Polish membership in the EU.
In October 1990 it was decided to connect the capitals of the countries associated with the Secretariat of the Council of the EU with the help of a specially prepared communications network.
"The National Electoral Commission's published results state that 58.85% of eligible voters turned up to vote (i.e. 17 586 215 out of 29 868 474 people), 77.45% of those (i.e. 13 516 612) answered yes to the question.
The Treaty of Accession 2003 signed on the 16 April 2003 in Athens was the legal basis for 10 countries Central and Southern Europe (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary) entering the European Union.
At the head of the Polish delegation was President Lech Kaczynski, who was accompanied by the ministers of the Presidential Chancellery: Robert Draba and Michal Kaminski.
Polish accession to the Schengen Agreement took place on 21 December 2007 (for land and sea crossings) and 29 March 2008 (for airports, together with the new flight timetable).
According to the survey conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre in March 2014, the Polish presence in the European Union was supported by 89% of Poles, while 7% opposed Poland's EU membership.
[4] Before Poland's integration into the European Union, Polish politicians tried to strengthen economic and political cooperation with its neighbouring countries.
In addition, Poland is afraid that greater EU reach in foreign and security policy would violate Polish national interests and sovereignty.
[4] Poland has preferred to discuss and maintain relations with NATO and the United States, being skeptical about the possibility of a single EU security and defence policy being implemented.
[7] Poland supports the further development and enlargement of the European Union, and draws attention to the need to eliminate delaying the start of accession negotiations.
[8] On 13 January 2016 the European Commission, launched a formal rule-of-law assessment based on rules set out in 2014 and according to Article 7 of the Treaty of Lisbon regarding the amendments of the constitutional court and the public media law in Poland.
[11][12][13] This came in the context of a quarrel between Poland and the EU that included also the logging of the Białowieża Forest, the refusal to accept refugees under the relocation program, and other issues.
The Polish justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, said the constitutional court's decision was "against interference, usurpation and legal aggression by organs of the European Union".
[24] On 22 November 2020, Do Rzeczy, a Polish conservative weekly newspaper, published a front-page article called "Polexit: We have the right to talk about it".
[28] In July 2021, SW Research made a poll for the Rzeczpospolita daily, found that 16.9% of respondents answered positively when asked: "In your opinion, should Poland leave the EU?"
