A majority of Poles want the EU rule of unanimity when taking important decisions to remain, and almost half are opposed to the concept of federalization of the European Union, new polling has revealed.
According to a survey by Estymator research center for portal dorzeczy.pl, 24 percent of respondents strongly agreed, and 36 percent somewhat agreed that the EU should keep the rule of unanimity voting in key decisions — a combined total of 60 percent.
On the contrary, 30 percent of Poles wanted the unanimity rule scrapped, while 10 percent of respondents did not know how to respond.
Currently in the EU, the rule of unanimity exists when taking the most important decisions, for example with regards to foreign policy or treaty change. It is designed to protect the interests of small and medium member states, but can sometimes leads to difficulties in taking those decisions.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in May that if the EU is to work faster, “unanimity voting in some key areas simply no longer makes sense.”
The respondents of the survey were also asked if the EU should head in the direction of tighter political integration, meaning federalization, involving strengthening of the EU institution’s power, such as the European Commission and European Parliament, at the expense of the member states’ competences.
Over 36 percent of Poles answered “yes” to this question, 16.8 percent strongly agreed and 19.6 percent partially agreed that the EU should be more federalized.
Some 49.3 percent do not want strengthening of EU institution’s competences, including 25.7 percent of the respondents who strongly disagreed and 23.6 percent who partially disagreed. 14.4 percent of respondents did not have an opinion on the matter.
