Fifteen years after Poland joined the European Union, 91% of Poles support the country's membership, according to a poll.
ADVERTISEMENT
Support for EU membership in Poland is booming — despite its government clashing with Brussels over rule of law, migration and the environment.
A survey published last month claimed 91% of Poles questioned supported being in the bloc, with 85% believing it has boosted the economy.
''For a large part of Poles, it is a real community in which we participate and which we can influence,'' Dr Jaroslaw Flis, a sociologist at Jagiellonian University, told Euronews.
Poland is the biggest beneficiary of EU infrastructure funds and trade with the bloc accounts for 80% of the country's exports, according to official figures.
''Only 5% of respondents are against [Poland's] membership in the EU," the poll — which coincides with the 15th anniversary of Poland joining the EU — concluded. ''In no socio-demographic groups does support for European Union membership fall below 80%.''
The poll found that even supporters of the Eurosceptic ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party are largely in favour of Poland's EU membership, with 90% supporting it.
Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, recently expressed support for the EU, but the leader of Poland’s ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is more of Eurosceptic.
Kaczynski says Poland should remain a member of the bloc it joined in 2004 but wants reforms to bring more power back from Brussels to national capitals.
Polish leaders have been criticised by EU Council president Donald Tusk, who himself served as the Polish PM from 2007 to 2014, for ''disrespecting the constitution on a daily basis''.