Life in Poland after the European Union accession

Poland has been a member of the European Union since May 2004. Both President Kwaśniewski and the government supported this cause. The only party opposed to EU entry was the populist right-wing League of Polish Families.

Poles wanted to be in European Union and during the Referendum Outcome majority of Poles went to the polls and voted ?yes?.
In our country there was a discussion about advantages and disadvantages of our accession to the EU. In my opinion there is more merits than defects of it.

Firstly, the EU is a great chance for young people to study and work abroad. Polish diplomas are accepted in all european countries. Poles can study in other countries with no re striction and no fees.

Since joining the European Union, many workers have left to work in other EU the countries (particularly Ireland and the UK) because of high unemployment, which was the second-highest in the EU (14.2% in May 2006). The ratio of Polish temporary emigrants rose sharply after the European Union accession from around 2% in 2002 to 6% in 2006 and 7% in 2007. However, with the rapid growth of the salaries, booming economy, strong value of Polish currency, and quickly decreasing unemployment (8% in March 2008) exodus of Polish workers seems to be over.

In addition, the door to new markets for Polish corporations are opened. The quality of Polish products have grown up because corporations are up to compete with products from the other union countries.

Polish export of food products have increased at about 40%. Polish currency became stronger not only to the American dollar but also to the euro, because of that our national debt decreased at about 60 billion zlotys.

At present so called Index of economical satisfaction shows that Poles are 41% more satisfied than average Europeans.

In the conclusion, since joining the EU Poland have improved its economic situation, there is more work places and salaries have grown about 30 %.