20 years of Poland in the EU

Bonjour, Natasza Styczyńska, very pleased to have you back at Euradio. Today, in 2024, you are Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. But what were you doing when Poland became a member of the European Union, twenty years ago, on the 1st of May 2004?

 I was a student, in my fourth year of political science studies! Membership negotiations and the opening prospects for education and work across Europe made a huge impression on my generation but also intimidated us. We didn’t quite believe that we would really become part of the world we knew only from our holiday escapades or from literature.