2023-04-30 12:02:39
On June 8, 2003, the Poles chose by referendum to join the European Union. A year later they became one of the ten new member states of the Union.
It’s a family story. The story of a marriage, of a union made of hope, a story of crossed destinies. It is also a complicated story, made up of things left unsaid and misunderstandings. A stormy relationship, where everyone needs each other, but where everyone expects something from the other that they are not.
This return to Europe of the former countries of the Eastern bloc was a horizon for the union and for Poland. The horizon of peace, democracy and market economy. 20 years later, what remains today of the dreams of Europe in Poland and in Western Europe? Where is this relationship tarnished by many points of contention?
The Cold War that Western Europe thought was over is back. The status of Poland has changed in the union. On the front line against Russia, the country occupies a central position. Not only at the geographical level but also at the political level. We therefore said to ourselves that it was essential to return to this process which led to the entry in 2004 of Poland and 9 other States into the union. A process that seemed obvious at the time, but which was not self-evident.
The increasingly hard conflicts between the commission and the Visegrad group, the countries of the East which take the path of illiberalism often arouse misunderstanding between the west and the east about the state of law, of democracy, of the fundamental values of Europe. We must therefore take the time to review the path traveled together to measure the origin of these misunderstandings.
In this podcast: Olivier Hanrion, RTBF journalist. Dorota Bawolek, Belgian-Polish journalist.
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