THE POLISH LAW AND JUSTICE (PiS) PARTY AND THE EU

The victory of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland could usher in "significant" changes to the geopolitical landscape, with "outsiders", especially in Berlin and Brussels. The list of problems to be faced by Brussels with the PiS victory is long and multifaceted, based primarily on the party's ideology of promoting what it perceives as the country's national interests before common European interests.

1. Although the party is not anti-European Union it is very much sceptical of deeper European integration as a desirable end in of itself, and it also wants Poland to assert its national interest more forcefully in a number of key areas ranging from energy and climate policies to the EU’s stance towards Russia. The key point is that while Poles still overwhelmingly back EU membership, they want a greater degree of control over its development and direction.
2. PiS shares Mr Cameron's desire to reassert the primacy of nation states within the EU over the traditional pro-integration drive led by France and Germany. PiS could be a strong ally for Cameron in his bid to achieve a more flexible EU with differing levels of integration, including safeguards for non-euro Member States.
3. PiS has argued that Poland should only join the single currency when living standards have caught up with those in the West, which could be a matter of decades. With the Eurozone set to embark on a course towards deeper integration, the absence of such a large Member State will have consequences for the development of the EU more broadly.
4. PiS will challenge Brussels in attempts to close Poland's polluting coal industry, which the PiS consider to be a pillar of the country's economy and a guarantee of its energy independence.
5. The biggest Brussels-Warsaw rift would undoubtedly be the EU's policy on the refugee crisis which has hit Europe.
6. As far as relations with Germany are concerned, the PiS has repeatedly been critical for bowing to German business interests. The PiS also condemns Berlin's agreement with Moscow on the Nord Stream II gas pipeline deal, which the party worries will undermine Poland's strategic interests and bring Germany and Russia closer together.  The PiS has also shown irritation over Berlin's resistance to proposals to station American troops and additional heavy equipment in eastern Poland.
7. Openly contemptuous of Russia long before the crisis over Ukraine in 2014, the PiS might be expected to further strain relations with Moscow.