May 1, 2024, commemorates the 20th anniversary of Poland’s accession to the European Union. During a morning statement at the Presidential Palace, Andrzej Duda emphasized that this is a very important and symbolic day.

“Today, we look back from the perspective of these 20 years at our presence in the Union, and we can certainly say one thing: it was and it is a very good time for Poland,” he emphasized.

He emphasized that these twenty years have brought about a huge change in our country as well as in our sense of being part of a “great global, not just European, but global community.” In this context, he pointed to the freedom of movement and choice of workplace. He drew attention to the “expanding possibilities for Poles to explore the world.”

The President noted that the last 20 years have also been a period of “extremely dynamic development of our country.” “This is a great merit not only of the European Union itself and our membership in it. Not only the European funds that we received, primarily as part of the cohesion policy,” he said.

According to the president, “it is primarily the merit of great effort, wisdom, intelligence, and the wonderful attitude of our compatriots, those who were responsible for preparing this process of disbursing European funds, for preparing appropriate procedures for this expenditure, for the entire process related to ensuring that these funds were absorbed by us as well as possible, to truly serve the development of Poland.”

“I thank everyone who, over these 20 years, has contributed to the fact that today we can proudly look at the development of Poland, we can proudly look at the development of Polish infrastructure, we can say: yes, what was given to us to develop Poland—and thus to develop Europe, the European Union, to support European economic development—we used well, and today we are in the full sense of the word part of a dynamically developing European community,” he pointed out.