The European Union Membership Impact on Sovereignty and Cultural Identity of Poland

Abstract

State’s sovereignty is its extraordinary value and also an international
legal characteristic feature that distinguishes it from other states because
it proves its independence. A sovereign state is one that carries out its own
unlimited internal and foreign policy, except for limitations made by law and
international treaties. However, the cultural identity which is an essential
part of national identity is the second most important designatum of state,
i.e. what distinguishes it from other nations and states. In the past, e.g. during
the 123 years of the Partitions of Poland the invaders not only deprived our
country of its sovereignty but also made attempts to deprive it of its cultural
identity, i.e. to eliminate the use of the mother tongue via Germanization and
Russification of the Polish nation and to deprive it of any national cultural
achievements, including religion.
The present article is an attempt to show the influence of the Polish
membership to the European Union on our national sovereignty and cultural
identity. The author asks many interesting questions, proposes theses and
hypotheses and tries to show that our – voluntary – accession to the European
Union was necessary and inevitable and strengthens our state’s sovereignty,
serves the Polish reason of state and poses no threat to the cultural identity
of Poland. Moreover, the author proves a thesis that, after the accession of
Poland to the European Union, Poland not only gained new opportunities
of political and economic co-operation, but also possibilities to participate in
various cultural programs and use funds for the protection of spiritual and
material goods of the national culture, and in this way to strengthen Polish
cultural identity and national sovereignty.