20 Years of Poland’s Membership in the EU: Successes and Challenges

The article analyses twenty years of Poland’s membership in the European Union and its impact on the country’s socio-economic development. Poland’s accession to the EU was a turning point that initiated a profound institutional and economic transformation that contributed to GDP growth, infrastructure modernisation, economic convergence and improved living standards. Poland transitioned from a peripheral economy to one of the most dynamic members of the EU, which allowed it to strengthen its position in the international arena. However, the integration process was accompanied by a number of challenges, such as dependence on external capital, weakness of national institutions, imbalance between formal and informal practices and insufficient support for national entrepreneurial initiatives. The formation of a hybrid model of capitalism, combining elements of Western European systems and institutions inherited from the socialist past, have determined Poland’s unique development trajectory. The paper pays special attention to the critical assessment of the consequences of integration, including the disparities in the distribution of benefits between Poland and the old EU members. The author concludes that, despite impressive achievements, the Polish economic model remains vulnerable to internal and external challenges, which requires its rethinking – first of all, the transition from an exogenous growth model to a strategy based on internal sources of development in an increasingly complex global context.