Abstract
Since the collapse of its communist regime in 1989-1990, Poland aimed at joining the European Economic Community/European Union (EU). In 1991, the Association Agreement was signed by the country and the international organization. Poland officially applied for membership in June 1994. The negotiations for accessions began in March 1998. Poles accepted that their country integrated the EU by referendum in June 2003. Finally, Poland became a full member of the continental institutions on the 1st May 2004. With its forty millions of inhabitants, Poland was the biggest of the ten countries which joined the Union in its latest enlargement. After the collapse of communism, an overwhelming majority of Poles agreed with the idea of joining the EU. However, as in every applicant countries, the level of popular support for EU membership decreased when the negotiations started, since the concessions and harmful reforms were then discussed by officials and criticized by citizens. Nowhere had the decline of public support been more dramatic than in Poland.
