Poland’s policy towards membership in the Economic and Monetary Union

Abstract

Poland’s accession to the European Union determines future membership in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The subject of the research is the analysis of Polish policy towards EMU membership during the first 15 years of Poland’s membership in the EU. The research is political nature and intentionally does not focus on the economic benefits and challenges associated with Poland’s membership in the EMU.

The aim of research is to focus on changes taking place in the policy towards Poland’s membership in the EMU conducted by the ruling parties, successively by the coalition of the Civic Platform (PO) and the Polish People’s Party (PSL) – PO-PSL in years 2007–2015 and then by the Law and Justice (PiS) in years 2005–2007 in consultation with the Self-Defence (Samoobrona RP) and the League of Polish Families (LPR) as well as 2015–2019 in the coalition with the Jarosław Gowin’s Agreement (Porozumienie Jarosława Gowina) and Zbigniew Ziobro’s Solidary Poland (Solidarna Polska).

The main research questions relate to how has Poland’s membership in the EMU been perceived by the ruling parties since 2004 and what are the reasons for the fact that joining the eurozone by Poland until recently had been the strategic goal of the ruling elite of the country, and nowadays the strategic goal has become non-entry into the EMU.

The main research methods were the analysis of the content of documents and a comparative method. The first method allowed presenting the perspective of Poland’s entry into the euro area from the side of the ruling parties policy. That is why the text was mainly based on source materials, i.e. reports, government documents, political speeches, party election programs and press articles. The second research method allowed to compare the concept of Poland’s membership in the EMU presented in various programs of the ruling political parties.

The result of the conducted research indicates the radicalisation of the views of the Polish political scene. It also proves that date of adoption of the single European currency depends not only on meeting the convergence criteria, but also on which political option will rule in Poland.