Publication

This paper examines how Poland's rise to the status of being a "leading EU Member State" could affect the country's policy towards EU institutions. The authors argue that this situation could create a temptation to ditch its traditional “hedging” approach to the European Commission and Parliament and strike out more on its own. However, they also contend that Poland’s real success in the EU has been in securing the continued openness of EU rules and the integrity of its institutions. Since Poland is still at risk of being sidelined by exclusive forms of intergovernmental cooperation, the authors believe that Poland needs to find ways to renew the protective influence of the bloc’s supranational institutions rather than to abandon them.