Over PLN 30 billion net correspond on average to each year of Poland’s membership in the European Union. But not only the economic balance of the last 16 years is favourable, also political and social one is clearly positive. Poland has an impact on international decisions, successfully invests European Funds and its level of development approaches richer Community countries.

Poles assess the membership of their country in the European Union very positively

The vast majority believe that we have clearly benefited from the accession to the EU. The scale and pace of the changes that we have made are undoubtedly a civilisation leap. Accession to the Community, opening borders and market – though not all of its segments at once – as well as money from the common budget, were an impulse for us to develop as fast as never before. It also changed the perception of our country, beautiful, hospitable and attractive for investors. It was appreciated not only large international corporation appreciated it, but also by smaller businesses, tourists and people who simply want to live and work here.

Physically, integration would be more difficult without an efficient communication infrastructure

Unprecedented investments have opened East-West transit beneficial for all of Europe and let’s not forget about connections from North to South. Distances have not changes but we feel as we were closer to each other. We will get from Białystok to Wrocław in less than 5 and a half hours. Before the modern S8 route was constructed, the journey lasted several hours longer. Now it is not only faster but above all safer. Without the EU funds we would have to wait for such comfort much longer.

The development of our country’s regions clearly accelerated

The entrepreneurs have adapted to competitive conditions, finding new development directions. Innovative technical thought even led us to Mars. Detectors created by the Polish company investigated the environment of the Red Planet. We invest in environmental protection, energy also from renewable sources, clean transport, but also in education, science, culture and health protection. We know that a lot depends on us: on our inventiveness, creativity and commitment to action, extraordinary ideas and courage in implementing plans.

16 years in the EU it is over 255.5 thousand investments in sustainable and comprehensive development of our country, which we implemented with the co-financing of the European Funds. Their total amount has already exceeded PLN 625 billion. We are negotiating next budget, but we still have approximately PLN 30-40 billion to use from the current budget. Today, to strengthen the governmental anti-crisis shield we spend this money on fighting the coronavirus and mitigating its effects. But also for investments that allow many companies to survive the pandemic tsunami and to recover the economy from this destructive wave. The European Commission is helping us and other Member States in this battle by changing legislation and easing procedures. Acting in solidarity, we will get out faster.

Development policy means dialog and partnership

The membership in the European Union and the opportunities offered to us by the EU funds are not just roads, schools and sewage treatment plants built or renovated, modernized farms and companies, new jobs or trained employees. The implementation of programmes co-financed from the EU-funds also affects the way the development policy is conducted. It involves the dissemination of the principle of partnership, dialogue between central administration and local governments, representatives of employers’ organisations, trade unions and non-governmental organisations. Thanks to this, the importance of civil society is growing. These effects are difficult to measure but they certainly need to be taken into account when assessing our participation in the Community.

The numbers speak for themselves – by paying over EUR 58.5 billion to the Community budget and receiving almost EUR 181.5 billion from it, since May 2004, we are almost EUR 123 billion “ahead”.

Belonging to the European Community

However, I think the money is not the most important benefit of our membership in the Union. A huge, unprecedented change in the mentality of Poles, the opening of our country after many decades of isolation, the practical elimination of borders within the Community made today young Poles feel absolutely equal citizens of Europe. Without complexes, they look to the future with courage and pride in their own country and in no way differ from their peers from Western Europe. Observing these young people today, I’m sure that joining the European Union has been a huge success from the point of view of the last several years. The European standard of living is a natural state to them – from birth they are free citizens and they cannot imagine another Poland. I hope that the next sixteen years will be equally successful: both for Poland and for Europe.