London School of Econmics and Political Science Anna M. Pluta A
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
London School of Econmics and Political Science Legitimising Accession: Transformation Politics and Elite Consensus on EU Membership in Poland, 1989-2003. Anna M. Pluta A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, September, 2010. 1 UMI Number: U615B49 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615B49 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 it'iniU S' Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr .Piers Ludlow, for his kindness, challenging feedback, and the care he put into reviewing my work. I am also much indebted to Dr.Abby Inness for her very valuable comments. The thesis could not have been formulated without the input the interviewees and I would like to thank them for the time and the insights they offered. Fieldwork in Poland was made possible by funding from the Department of International History at the London School of Economics, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Dr.Kirsten Schulze, without whose support and encouragement this study could not have been completed. At a personal level several people have been a great source of support over the years. They include, in no particular order: Pete Zimmerman, Troy Lennerd, Eva Malia, Mike McGovern, Steve McLean, Lois Moore, Ola Kwiatkowska, Krzys Byra, Kim Hamburger-Boer and Jan Leadbetter. My greatest thanks goes, of course, to Russ. 2 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Anna M. Pluta 19 September 2010 3 Abstract This thesis considers the evolution of Poland's party-political consensus on accession to the European Union, starting with the elections to the contract parliament in June 1989 and ending with the accession referendum in June 2003. The main finding is that the establishment of consensus in favour of accession among Poland's political elites proved much more challenging than the elites' declarations of support suggest. Although most parties declared support for accession, throughout the entire pre-accession period they also supported policy proposals that contradicted accession conditions. The EU's strict neo liberal economic requirements and the loss of national sovereignty accession entailed proved particularly challenging. Rather than reconcile their policy proposals with EU's conditions, or change their stance on accession, parties rhetorically re-presented the EU into different visions that aligned with their ideological offering. Declarations of support for 'Social Europe', 'Christian Europe' or the 'Europe of Nations' gave the appearance of consensus. But in fact no in-depth consensus was possible since the way in which political groupings presented the 'Europe' they claimed to support was so different as to remove a common denominator they could agree on. As a result, the single biggest change Polish society experienced since 1989 was never really addressed in political debate. The integration project was propelled forward not by in-depth political consensus but by a series of rhetorical compromises. At each stage of the accession process the parties' inability to negotiate more than a nominal consensus prevented meaningful public debate. During each electoral contest of the pre-accession period voters were presented with ambiguous rhetoric in place of alternative policy options that would have enabled the electorate to hold decision makers to account. 4 Table of contents Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................2 Declaration......................................................................................................................3 Abstract............................................................................................................................4 Table of contents.............................................................................................................5 Abbreviations..................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 2 'Returning to Europe': European integration under the Mazowiecki cabinet.....................................................................................................24 Introduction..............................................................................................................24 Domestic developments.........................................................................................25 Polish foreign policy...............................................................................................28 The 'return to Europe' in political debate............................................................32 Elections to the 1989 contract sejm...................................................................33 Parliamentary debate.........................................................................................38 The 1990 presidential elections.........................................................................54 Conclusions..............................................................................................................57 Chapter 3 Putting metaphors into practice: the Association Agreement and the growth of euro-scepticism.......................................................62 Introduction..............................................................................................................62 Domestic developments.........................................................................................63 Foreign policy..........................................................................................................66 European integration in political debate..............................................................77 The 1991 parliamentary elections.....................................................................78 European integration in parliamentary debate..............................................88 Association treaty ratification debate..............................................................90 Regional policy debate.......................................................................................98 Conclusions............................................................................................................102 Chapter 4 SLD-PSL coalition: European integration under the successors of the ancien regime..................................................................................107 Introduction............................................................................................................107 Domestic developments.......................................................................................108 European integration policy................................................................................113 European integration in political debate............................................................126 5 1993 parliamentary election............................................................................127 1995 presidential elections...............................................................................137 Parliamentary debate.......................................................................................142 The 1997 constitution referendum and the ratification of international agreements.................................................................................152 Conclusions............................................................................................................155 Chapter 5 Evangelising accession: European integration under Solidarity Electoral Action........................................................................................ 157 Introduction............................................................................................................157 Domestic developments.......................................................................................158 EU integration policy............................................................................................164 Polish integration policy.......................................................................................168 Negotiations......................................................................................................182