Polish and British Politics 2013:
The Challenges and Opposition to the European Integration

Workshop

May 24, 2013, 9.00–15.30,
CIUW Building, Central Campus

The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA
The Polish Society for British and Commonwealth Studies
and The Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw 

The workshop was to analyse the European policy-making of Poland from the British Perspective, as well as the Polish perception of key problems of the UK’s European policy-making, and to compare these two perspectives.

Special attention was paid to the influence of the EU accession on the quality of Polish democracy as well as to the state of methodological debate and research in the field of Euroscepticism Studies. There were also discussed such important British political developments of 2012–2013 as influence of the Scottish independence debate on EU’s policy-making; perspectives of the UK’s EU referendum; the 2013 Queen’s Speech; and the legacy of Lady Thatcher assessed from the Central European perspective.

The workshop was constituted by three panels, the two first presenting keynote speeches by distinguished researchers in the field, and the third one presenting the findings of the research projects undertaken by the members of the Britannia Group and colleagues from other academic centres in Poland and abroad.

The keynote speakers were:

Professor Aleks Szczerbiak – Professor of Politics and Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex and Co-Director of the Sussex European Institute. His research interests comprise, among others, contemporary Polish politics, and opposition to European integration. Professor Szczerbiak co-convenes the European Parties, Elections and Referendums Network. He has been publishing extensively on Polish politics, including two monographs: Poland Within the European Union: New Awkward Partner or New Heart of Europe? (Routledge, 2012), and Poles Together?: The Emergence and Development of Political Parties in Post-communist Poland (Central European University Press, 2001). Moreover, in 2013 Professor Szczerbiak has started writing The Polish Politics Blog. He also authored and edited a number of books and papers on comparative Euroscepticsm, including (co-edited with Prof. Paul Taggart) Opposing Europe? The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism, Volume 1: Case Studies and Country Surveys, and Volume 2: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Dr Anna Gwiazda – Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the King’s College, University of London. Prior to her appointment at King’s, she lectured at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University. She holds a PhD from Trinity College, University of Dublin. Her research interests comprise comparative politics; European politics; EU politics and public policy; Europeanization and Polish politics; and democracy. She published a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her latest book analyses the developments of Democracy in Poland: Representation, Participation, Competition and Accountability since 1989 (Routledge 2015).

Dr Aleksandra Moroska-Bonkiewicz – Assistant Professor at the Department of Security and International Affairs, University of Lower Silesia. Her main research interests focus on populism, extremism, Euroscepticism, and political system security. She published a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals in Poland and abroad, as well as edited the monograph on Political Extremism in Modern World (Wrocław, 2012). Her PhD thesis on the Right-Wing Populism and Euroscepticism: The Case of the List Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands and the League of Polish Families in Poland (published in 2010) was awarded the honors by the President of the Republic of Poland, and the prize of Minister of Science and Higher Education. She is a member of the editorial board of the “Yearbook of International Security”.

The workshop was held in English.

WORKSHOP AGENDA

08.50–09.10 REGISTRATION

09.10–09.30 WELCOME

• WELCOME SPEECH by Professor Janusz Adamowski – the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, University of Warsaw and Professor Franciszek Gołembski – Chairperson of the Research Group BRITANNIA.
• WELCOME SPEECH by Dr Karol Lasocki, Chair of the British Alumni Society.
• Dr Wojciech Lewandowski (Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw): Presentation of activities of the Research Group BRITANNIA.

09.30–11.15 Part 1. KEY-NOTE PRESENTATIONS (I): Theoretical and methodological issues in Eurosceptic Studies (chaired by Dr Przemysław Biskup, Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw).

• Professor Aleks Szczerbiak (Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex): Researching Euroscepticism in party politics: Methodological and analytical challenges.
• Dr Aleksandra Moroska-Bonkiewicz (Institute of Security and International Affairs, Faculty of Social; Science and Journalism, University of Lower Silesia): Euroscepticism in the service of populism: The experience of Poland and other European countries.

11.15–11.30 Coffee Break

11.30–13.00 Part 2. KEY-NOTE PRESENTATIONS (II): Polish Politics and the challenge of European integration (chaired by Dr Łukasz Zamęcki, Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw).

• Dr Anna Gwiazda (King’s College, University of London): The Quality of Democracy in Poland: Did the European Union make a difference?
• Professor Aleks Szczerbiak (Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex): The ‘domestication’ of the European issue: Polish political parties and European integration.

13.00–13.45 Lunch Break

13.45–15.30 Part 3. Panel on recent developments in British politics (chaired by Dr Wojciech Lewandowski) 

• Dr Tomasz Czapiewski (Institute of Political Science and European Studies, University of Szczecin): The European dimension of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum.
• Dr Przemysław Biskup (Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw) & Dr Małgorzata Kaczorowska (Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw): Party-based Euroscepticism in the UK and the perspective of the Britain’s EU referendum.
• Mr. Jiři Koubek (Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Political Science, Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University of Prague): Shaping the Ideology and Identity of Czech Right: The Thatcherite Inspiration.
• Dr Krzysztof Winkler (Polish Society for British and Commonwealth Studies): Impact of Thatcherism on Poland’s democratic transition.