The Polish Vision of EU Future: Imitation of the Hungarian Model?

Abstract

The argument of this article is based on the assumption that the Hungarian EU model and the imitative Polish EU vision are based on Euroscepticism, creating the concepts equally incompatible with Western standards of democracy and the EU mainstream views. The strong articulation of extreme opinions leads to the isolation, while in the light of liberal intergovernmentalism it is the Polish concept that undermines the relative position of that state in the EU system more than the Hungarian one. First, compared with Hungary, Poland has completely different interests based on a Russian threat and geographical location. Second, due to its size Poland could be a relatively strong player in the EU, while presentation of a radical concept weakens its role, making it impossible to act as intermediary, an honest broker or a group leader. On the contrary, the Hungarian model, based on a similar concept but applied to a small political actor, can strengthen the relatively marginal position of that state, being a beneficial way to achieve some goals in tactical games.