Experteninterviews

Ph. D. Kamil Zajączkowski, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director for Research and International Cooperation for European Studies at University of Warsaw

In Poland we use (the terms) “Central Europe” or “Central Eastern Europe”. Central Europe is related to the Visegrád group: Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. “Central and Eastern Europe”, including Visegrad states plus former Soviet Republics and now independent states. If we use “Eastern Europe” in public debates, we want to underline former Soviet Union states only.

People in Poland hearing that they´re from Eastern Europe (said in public debates) perceive this as negative because it feels like a division between East and West.

When Poland has entered the EU in 2004, the division disappeared. During the migration crisis in 2015-2016 the division came back because we observed all the old divisions between East and West: West European states welcomed migrants and Eastern European states - the bad states - refused to cooperate.

The division also appeared during the discussion about new funding decisions of the European Commission, new financial perspectives and aids for the period from 2001-2007. Our politicians take this occasion to assume that the European Commission wanted to divide the EU states in two blocks, in East and West. Eastern Europe would get less financial means.