Polish euroscepticism in the run-up to EU accession

Recent years have seen increasing Polish cynicism about the EU that has led to a significant fall in support for membership and the emergence of a sizeable bloc of anti-EU public opinion. Support was bound to fall once it became apparent that conforming to EU norms would involve negative economic and social consequences as well as benefits. Even more significantly, the crack in the previously overwhelming pro-EU elite consensus and the subsequent politicisation of the debate on EU membership have also chipped away at public support. However, support for Polish EU membership appears to have stabilised at a relatively high level. Even though parties critical of or even opposed to EU membership performed well in the most recent September 2001 parliamentary election it would be wrong to interpret this as a kind of Eurosceptic backlash given that, by virtually any measure, the EU was not a salient campaign issue.