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Abstract
This article seeks to examine and assess the role of Poland in the early stages of the making of the Eastern Partnership of the European Union. First, it briefly reviews Poland's aims and ambitions with regard to the European Union's policy towards its eastern neighbours, both before and since it joined the European Union in 2004. Second, it describes and analyses the Eastern Partnership, including its added value for the European Neighbourhood Policy. Third, it draws on a range of interviews carried out by the authors in Brussels and Warsaw on Poland's role in the initial formation of the Eastern Partnership, as seen by its partners in the other member states and European institutions. In addition, it seeks to unpack some of the early stage lessons learnt by the Polish government about how best to achieve its ambitions in the European Union, and notes the remaining weaknesses of the Polish administration, particularly in the area of administrative capacity.
Notes
1 Lukes' second dimension of power is the ability to exercise influence, persuasion and coercion to secure a particular outcome, where there is a conflict of subjective interests (Lukes Citation2005, pp. 20–25).
2 Fifty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted during the project between 2007 and 2010 in Warsaw and Brussels and the data were subsequently transcribed and coded. Interview transcripts have been anonymised to protect the identity of the interviewees. In this article, each interview has been numbered by the authors, giving the date and place of the interview. A full list of interviews was disclosed to the editors and peer-reviewers.
3 DG-RELEX was a section of the European Commission charged with relations with third (non-EU) countries that was in existence until 2011 when it was replaced by the European External Action Service (EEAS), which came into being after the coming into force of the 2010 Treaty of Lisbon.
4 A non-paper (a term very commonly used in Brussels and in diplomatic jargon in general) is a document that is usually circulated informally between the member states.
5 Interview 46, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Warsaw, 10 May 2005; Interview 23, British Embassy, Warsaw, 20 October 2005.
6 Interview 46, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Warsaw, 10 May 2005.
7 Interview 46, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Warsaw, 10 May 2005.
8 Interview 54, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 23 November 2009.
9 Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009.
10 ‘Polish–Swedish Proposal: Eastern Partnership’, June 2008, available at: http://www.enpi-info.eu/library/content/polish-swedish-proposal-eastern-partnership, accessed 3 October 2013. The draft version of the proposal presented to the European Council was dated 23 May 2008.
11 Interview 38, European Council, Brussels, 9 December 2009.
12 ‘Treaty on the European Union’, Official Journal of the European Union, C83/15, 30 March 2010, available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri = OJ:C:2010:083:0013:0046:en:PDF, accessed 7 October 2013.
13 Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009.
14 The use of the term Association Agreements was at first contested, with some member states calling for the name ‘Enhanced Agreement’ to be employed, implicitly avoiding making a link between the signing of an Association Agreement and a commitment to eventual accession in the way that followed the signing of the 1994–1995 Association Agreements (also commonly called Europe Agreements) with the Central European countries that joined in the Fifth Enlargement in 2004 and 2007.
15 ‘Cohesion Policy 2007–13: Poland, the Biggest Beneficiary, has Plan and Priorities Agreed with the Commission’, Commission Press Release, reference: IP/07/633, 8 May 2007, available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference = IP/07/633&format = HTML&aged = 0&language = EN&guiLanguage = en, accessed 5 July 2013.
16 For more on this last aspect, see Boonstra and Shapovalova (Citation2010).
17 Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009.
18 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
19 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
20 ‘Chirac Lashes Out at New Europe’, CNN, 13 February 2003, available at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/02/18/sprj.irq.chirac/, accessed 8 July 2013.
21 Interview 38, European Council, Brussels, 9 December 2009; Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, 10 December 2009.
22 Interview 46a, anonymous Lithuanian official, Brussels, 27 November 2009.
23 Interview 32, Czech official, Brussels, 26 October 2009.
24 Other officials have noted that the Polish Foreign Ministry has a tendency to ignore letters that it does not know how to respond to. Interview 23, British Embassy, Warsaw, 16 May 2008.
25 Interview 33, Swedish COEST, Brussels, 10 November 2009.
26 Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 10 December 2009.
27 Interview 33, Swedish COEST, Brussels, 10 November 2009.
28 Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009.
29 Interview 54, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 23 November 2009.
30 Interview 32, Czech COEST, Brussels, 26 October 2009.
31 Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 10 December 2009.
32 ‘Polish President Wins EU Summit Bunfight’, EU Observer, 16 October 2008, available at: http://euobserver.com/9/26948, accessed 5 July 2013.
33 COEST is a geographical Council Working Group dealing with Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Interview 41, Commission Official, 11 December 2009, Brussels.
34 Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 10 December 2009.
35 Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 10 December 2009; Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009; Interview 38, European Council, Brussels, 9 December 2009. See also Ochman (Citation2010, pp. 4–5) for a German position.
36 Interview 41, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 11 December 2009.
37 Interview 41, Commission Official, 11 December 2009, Brussels.
38 Interview 45, Spanish COEST, Brussels, 27 November 2009.
39 Interview 34, Polish COEST, Brussels, 27 October 2009.
40 Interview 18, Warsaw, 26 May 2008.
41 Interview 37, ex French COEST, Brussels, 9 December 2009.
42 Interview 37, ex French COEST, Brussels, 9 December 2009.
43 Interview 37, ex French COEST, Brussels, 9 December 2009.
44 Interview 40, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 10 December 2009.
45 Interview 40, RELEX Official, Brussels, 10 December 2009.
46 Interview 1, Warsaw, 8 May 2008; Interview 21, Warsaw, 20 May 2008.
47 Interview 55, European Commission DG External Relations, Brussels, 23 November 2009.
48 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
49 Interview 21, anonymous Polish official, 20 May 2008, Warsaw.
50 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
51 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
52 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
53 Interview 31, European Commission, Brussels, 20 February 2009.
54 Interview 32, Czech COEST, Brussels, 26 October 2009.
55 We are grateful to Darina Malova for this point.
56 A key example of this is the way that the British government appeared in 2010 to be obliged to give prisoners serving sentences the right to vote in elections.
