Poland’s support for the EU lowest in over a decade

Poland has recorded the lowest level of support for the country’s presence in the EU in more than a decade, according to a new poll, called 20 years of Poland’s membership in the EU, published by a Polish pollster ahead of this week’s anniversary of Poland’s EU accession.

The score comes after years of record-high support for EU membership, often close to or exceeding 90%, and shows a clear division between the supporters of the ruling coalition and opposition voters.

Meanwhile, a survey by the EU’s polling agency, found that the overwhelming majority of Polish respondents believe that the country benefited from EU membership, and many are optimistic about the union’s future.

The new poll, conducted by state research agency CBOS, found that 77% of respondents favour Poland’s presence in the EU, eight percentage points lower than last year, and the lowest since 2013, when 72% expressed their support.

The 2024 results are also 15 percentage points lower than in June 2022 when, four months after Russia’s full-scale aggression in Ukraine, Poland saw record support for EU membership at 92%.

This year, 17% of respondents were against Poland’s EU membership, seven percentage points more than last year and 12 percentage points more than two years ago. But the share was even higher in 2013 when 21% voted in favour of leaving the union.

Poles are on average 40% richer than they would have been if the country had not joined the EU, finds the Polish Economic Institute.

That was the second highest figure among the eastern member states that joined the bloc in 2004, notes @PIE_NET_PL https://t.co/3PiJozm8ql

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 17, 2024

CBOS research also shows a clear division in EU attitudes depending on the respondent’s political affiliation. The support for EU membership remains above 90% among the voters of the members of the ruling coalition – 98% among Civic Coalition (KO) voters, 95% among Third Way (Trzecia Droga) supporters and 92% among those who vote for the Left (Lewica).

At 63%, the support for Poland’s membership in the union is lower among those favouring the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that lost power in last year’s elections.

Meanwhile, the only group where those against Poland’s EU membership dominate (51%) are the voters of the radical right Confederation (Konfederacja) whose politicians often present strong anti-EU views.

Poland has been the biggest economic beneficiary of EU membership among the eastern member states that have joined the bloc since 2004, a new report shows.

Over that period, its economy has doubled in size, outpacing all other countries in the region https://t.co/keCA2fZlHV

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 3, 2024

According to the poll, 59% of respondents believe that Poland’s presence in the EU brings the country more benefits than losses, while slightly more than every fifth respondent (21%) thinks the opposite. The view that the benefits and losses are balanced was expressed by 15%.

Among the advantages of EU membership, Polish respondents named financial benefits (28%), open borders and freedom of movement within the EU (22%), economic development, security and free movement of capital (12% in total).

CBOS also asked about the disadvantages of Poland’s presence in the EU where respondents pointed to excessive limitation of sovereignty (21%), the need to adapt Polish law to EU law (15%), and too high requirements of environmental regulations (10%).

Opposition party PiS has pledged to oppose the EU’s Green Deal in a bid to win votes ahead of the EU election.

The promise has been met with scepticism, with some pointing out the set of EU climate policies was approved by Warsaw when PiS was in powerhttps://t.co/Dbl2QhaB1y

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 29, 2024

Meanwhile, a spring 2024 survey by Eurobarometer, the EU’s polling agency, found that 81% of Polish respondents believe that the country benefited from EU membership, compared to a 71% EU average. Poles are also more optimistic about the union’s future, with 71% seeing it optimistically (61% EU average) and 25% being pessimistic (35% EU average).

At the same time, 51% of Polish respondents assessed their sentiment towards the EU positively, 38% were neutral, and 11% saw the EU in a negative light. The average scores for all EU countries were 47%, 36% and 17% respectively.

The Eurobarometer survey also looked into the values the member states believe should be defended by the European Parliament. The two most popular choices among both Polish respondents and the average from all member states were peace (38% among Poles, 47% on average) and democracy (respectively 26% and 33%).

Poles valued solidarity among EU member states and between its regions, respect for national identity, culture and traditions in EU member states, freedom of movement, freedom of religion and belief, and right to seek asylum more than other member states.

Three ministers from Poland’s government are set to leave office just months after taking up their positions in order to become members of the European Parliament.

One of them, the culture minister, has already announced his resignation https://t.co/JR01lKJvZW

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 24, 2024

The CBOS and Eurobarometer polls come ahead of the upcoming June elections to the European Parliament which might see a record turnout as 71% of all Eurobarometer respondents declaring their participation as probable.

According to the survey, 63% of Polish respondents expressed interest in the elections and 70% declared that they were likely to participate. However, historically EU elections attract fewer voters than national ones – the turnout at the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland was only 45.68%.

Many Polish politicians have already started announcing their candidacy, with three ministers from Poland’s government set to leave office just months after taking up their positions in order to become members of the European Parliament.

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Main image credit: Kasia Derenda/ Unsplash

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.