Poland had been preparing to join the European Union for several years. After accession, the standard of living in our country has risen considerably, and support for membership is still declared by the vast majority of Poles.
The date of 1 May 2004, as Poland’s first day in the European Union, is already in the history books. Not everyone knows, however, that the road to membership of this elite club of free and democratic countries began at a time when Polish dreams of freedom were only just maturing.
Step by step towards the Community
It all started on 16 September 1988, when diplomatic relations between Poland and the European Community were officially established. A year later, on 19 September 1989, the newly appointed Tadeusz Mazowiecki government began negotiations on a trade agreement, as well as trade and economic cooperation. In February 1990, the first Polish ambassador to the Commission of the European Communities, Jan Kulakowski, took office.
Official negotiations with the EEC began in December 1990 and the Association Agreement between Poland and the EEC was signed a year later. In March 1992, the Interim Agreement on Trade came into force. The formal application for our country’s membership of the Union was submitted in Athens on 8 April 1994. Eight months later, at a conference in Essen, the application was confirmed by all Member States. Formal negotiations on Poland’s accession to the EU began on 31 March 1998.
At the Copenhagen Summit, concluded on 13 December 2002, the then Leszek Miller government finalised the negotiations. On 16 April 2003. Poland signed the Accession Treaty. A referendum on membership held on 7-8 June 2003 confirmed that Poles wanted integration with the Union.
The single market is raising living standards
And what is it like twenty years later? In everyday life, Poles do not always see the benefits of our country’s membership of the EU. However, when asked about their standard of living, they mostly admit: it has improved. In March 2024, CBOS asked whether EU accession had had a positive impact on Poles’ material living conditions. As many as 72 per cent of survey respondents answered that it had been ‘rather beneficial’. Only 9% were convinced that the impact of accession was “rather unfavourable”, and the same percentage said it had no impact. Ten per cent had no opinion.
People’s feelings are confirmed by hard data. In 2004, Poland’s gross domestic product per capita was only 51.5 per cent of the EU average. Today it is almost 80 per cent. We have surpassed Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Greece, which were then ahead of us in this category. According to a study by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) entitled “Poland’s Benefits from the Single Market”, without participation in the common market, Polish GDP in 2021 would be at the level of 2014.
When Poles are asked about the benefits of EU membership, they often mention the use of EU funds. However, as economists agree, on the economic side, the biggest benefit has been the ability to participate in the free circulation of goods and services in the common market. It is important to realise that before 2004, each batch of goods imported from EU countries into Poland was subject to time-consuming customs clearance. In doing so, customs duties and taxes had to be paid, amounting to as much as several dozen percent of the value of the imported goods. Suffice it to say that in the 1990s, for a new high-end car imported into Poland, one had to pay its equivalent in customs duty, excise duty and VAT (sic!).
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