Paper Titles & Abstracts

Poland is commonly regarded as the 'diamond' in the 'ring of friends' of Ukraine among EU Member States. It took the lead in promoting Ukraine at the EU level during the Orange Revolution (which by a lucky chance occurred shortly after Poland's accession to the EU) and so far retains its leadership role, at least among Central and Eastern European countries. Today, Poland, through its representatives at national and European levels, is perhaps the key lobbyist of Ukraine's European future. In this paper I explore the means and scale of Poland's sponsorship of Ukraine at the EU level, the concurring motivations behind it and, to a limited extent, touch upon the real effect of this support. In doing so, I take the perspective of Poland itself. Hence, I analyse the motivations of Poland to support Ukraine at the EU arena in terms of its domestic political situation, bilateral relations with Ukraine, ambitions for regional leadership in Central and Eastern Europe, and pursuit of a weighty position in the matrix of EU Member States (the latter of central interest here). It is against these sets of motivations that I examine the effect of such sponsorship. The current political situation in and around Ukraine puts Poland and its real motivations to a test; whether its efforts will be rewarded or punished remains to be seen.