Influence of EU on the culture of Poland

The year 2004 sees the long debated and long awaited enlargement of the European Union (EU). The process of enlargement began in 1998 and culminated with agreement at the intergovernmental conference in Nice in 2000. Poland became a signatory to the Nice Treaty in February 2001 and is due to join the EU in May. Late last year, the Poles made their mark on the EU when they refused to back down over the issue of voting rights in the new enlarged EU and forced the collapse of talks in Brussels aimed at securing a new constitution for the enlarged EU. The enlargement of the EU is seen as being major challenges as former communist bloc countries join the Union. Poland is, in many respects, typical of those countries - it has embraced market economic reforms but still faces massive adjustment problems to allow it to be able to compete effectively in the EU. Poland is therefore a useful case study in the problems and benefits of enlargement of the EU.

The main benefits of joining the EU to Poland can be summarised as follows:

•Membership will help bring further stability to the political system - still very much a 'fledgling democracy' following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

•Membership will increase the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) to enable Poland to modernise its industry and infrastructure.

•Membership will open up the Polish economy to new ideas, new knowledge and new capital that will help to speed up the rate of economic growth - mainly through the establishment of new firms and greater business co-operation that will be gained from membership (remember that trade with Poland and the West was very limited during the era of the Soviet Bloc).

•Business will be more likely to invest in Poland because it will be more confident that it will be operating on a level playing field given that Poland will be subject to EU legislation - competition law, property rights and so on. This should help to boost Poland's economy further.

•Poland will gain access to EU structural funds to help develop regions and improve infrastructure.

•Membership will further encourage investment by multi-nationals who can seek to benefit from low cost labour. If it remained outside the EU this would be far less attractive.

•Poland represents an important geographical link between Western Europe and the countries to the East of Poland - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, etc. who, in time, could all apply to become members of the EU thus further widening the market available for increasing trade.

For the existing members of the EU, the enlargement will have reciprocal benefits - larger markets in which to sell its products, opportunities for investment and expansion with the resulting benefits of economies of scale that can result. However, for both Poland and the members of the EU there are serious concerns about the enlargement. These can be summarised as:

•The cost of enlarging the EU is vast - Poland alone will get €1 billion in ...