Why in Poland those who benefited most from EU became its opponents

After 20 years of Poland’s membership in the European Union, it has become clear that farmers have benefited from it more than anyone else.

Yet this has not changed their attitudeю Polish farmers have remained the most consistent Eurosceptics.

Read more about how EU membership has affected Polish agriculture in the article by Polish journalist Miłosz Szymański: A chance for development or a slow destruction? Why Polish farmers are dissatisfied with EU.

There is little doubt about the economic growth driven by EU membership: between 2004 and 2024, Poland’s GDP quadrupled. In 2004, GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) stood at 47% of the EU average; today it is 79%. In this respect, Poland has surpassed Greece (70%) and is catching up with Portugal (82%).

The minimum wage in Poland has increased from 824 zloty to 4,666 zloty gross (based on the euro exchange rates in 2004 and 2025 – €168 and €1,095 respectively).

The unemployment rate has dropped from 19% to 5%. Changes in infrastructure are so significant that when watching films from twenty years ago, one can recognise familiar locations but be surprised by how different they look today.

Support for Poland’s membership in the EU remains high, although it has been declining in recent years.

Residents of large cities tend to show higher support for EU membership. Euroscepticism, on the other hand, is more common among older people and among young people aged 18–24.

However, one group deserves particular attention: for more than 20 years it has consistently viewed the European Union more sceptically than the average Pole. This group is farmers.

This is particularly interesting given that farmers are the largest beneficiaries of Poland’s EU membership. Spending on the Common Agricultural Policy has always accounted for the largest share of the EU budget, and in the 1980s it even exceeded half of it.

Farmers’ fears that foreign capital would begin buying up farms on a massive scale did not materialise. Today, 98% of arable land is still in Polish hands, with 91.3% owned by individual farmers.

Another argument from Eurosceptics was that joining the EU would lead to the dismantling of the "traditional model of Polish rural life" and ultimately make Poland dependent on imported food.

Because of modernisation, some decline in the rural population was inevitable.

Between 2002 and 2020, however, the number of farms and the total area of agricultural land did decrease.

Given that very small farms (less than one hectare) struggle to survive, some consolidation was unavoidable.

Large farms have begun to emerge in Poland, although individual farmers operating medium-sized farms still dominate.

At the same time, Poland remains a net food exporter: it produces about 150% of its own food needs, leaving a significant surplus for export.