Poland, Variable Geometry and the Enlarged European Union

Abstract

This article examines the role of Poland in the European Union, where the traditional Franco-German leadership axis has been replaced by a new ‘variable geometry’ of leadership constellations across a variety of policy areas. In this setting Poland has the potential to move from maintaining an initially passive role as a policy-taker towards becoming an agenda-setter alongside other larger and more traditionally dominant member states, especially Germany. However, Poland's success in this matter and subsequent influence on a variety of European Union policy areas, particularly the single market and the European Union's external relations, will substantially depend on the extent of its economic recovery from the effects of the global economic recession and wider developments in the European Union's debt crisis as well as its willingness to engage in constellations of member states that go beyond its traditional partners.