A Path Out of Poland's Isolation

Voters in Poland will head to the polls this fall. The results of the election could ripple through the rest of the European Union.

Once touted as an exemplar of the benefits of EU membership, Poland has become a headache for the bloc under the nationalist Law and Justice party-led coalition, which has wielded a majority in Parliament since 2015. Relations between Warsaw and Brussels have grown tense over policies that curbed the independence of Poland’s judiciary, chipped away at media freedoms and limited women’s reproductive rights.

The standoff led to the EU’s sixth-largest economy effectively being denied access to post-pandemic support funds from the bloc’s Recovery and Resilience Facility—Poland’s share equals €35.4 billion ($38 billion). Also, in October 2021, the EU’s Court of Justice slapped the country with a €1 million-a-day fine for failing to comply with a ruling ordering it to shut down a disciplinary chamber for judges that’s contributed to the politicization of Poland’s judiciary. The accumulated amount already exceeds €400 million, but the government has refused to pay.

The rift comes at an awkward time: The war in Ukraine has transformed Poland into the main conduit for humanitarian and military aid to Kyiv and the destination for millions of migrants fleeing the war.