Uwarunkowania ponadnarodowe i międzynarodowe polskiej prezydencji w Radzie UE

Abstract

This article considers two types of determinants of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, namely the supranational and the international ones. The said determinants both indicate the dual nature of the presidency and impact the effectiveness and efficiency of this institution. On the one hand, the Presidency functions as an element of the supranational system of power within the EU, with the state holding the presidency acting within the institutional, legal, and functional constrains of the system. Therefore, the Presidency’s role is one of an honest broker, mediating and brokering inter-institutional compromises and compromises between the Member States on the EU objectives. On the other hand, the Presidency constitutes an instrument of national influence on European policy. It allows a Member State to push for initiatives of their own national interest. In this sense, the opportunity to pursue the nation’s own objectives and interests is determined by the plurality ofexpectations and preferences of the other actors of the European policy as well as by the given state’s ability to create coalitions and to redefine the national interests in terms of the European ones. In such a context, the determinants of the Polish Presidency encompass problems which currently dominate the scene of the EU policy, interests of individual Member States, as well as the volatile and unpredictable situation outside the European borders.