European solidarity: perceptions and declarations of party leaders in Poland

Abstract

The research presented in this article is the attempt to analyse Polish parliamentary discourse concerning the European solidarity. The European solidarity is one of the greatest challenges of the second decade of the 21st century. This phenomenon can be analysed from the perspective of three dimensions: its roots in the EU treaties – as values and principles; institutionalised solidarity mechanisms – measures against internal shocks, cohesion policy, social policy; ad hoc solidarity in moments of crisis – e.g. migration crisis, COVID-19 crisis. This article addresses the issue of European solidarity from the perspective of political leaders. The analysed utterances allow us to conclude that the problem of European solidarity does not dominate in the parliamentary discourse of the most important Polish politicians. The parliamentary speeches of the Polish party leaders revealed various aspects of the perception of the title concept, especially in the context of shared values, although perceived in different ways. Good relations between EU countries, a common social and economic policy, as well as the sustainable development of Europe proved to be important.

Keywords

• European Union
• Poland
• political parties
• political leaders
• parliamentary discourse
• European solidarity