The Impact of Poland's EU Accession on its Economy

Poles are on average 40% richer than they would have been if the country had not joined the European Union, according to a new report by the Polish Economic Institute, published ahead of next month’s 20th anniversary of Poland’s EU accession.

PIE’s analysts calculated that Poland’s GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms – a measure of economic activity taking account of a country’s population size and cost of living – was in 2022 39.6% higher than if the country had not joined the EU.

Among the eight eastern member states that joined in 2004, only Lithuania (60.3%) was found by PIE to have had a bigger premium from EU membership than Poland. They were followed by Latvia (32.2%), Slovakia (18.2%), Hungary (13.4%), the Czech Republic (8.4%), Estonia (0.4%) and Slovenia (0.1%).

The analysts found that Poland’s average annual growth in GDP per capita at PPP between 2004 and 2022 of 4.2% would have been 1.7 percentage points lower if Poland had pursued development outside the EU.

Should it have remained outside the EU, the Polish standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita, would be [in 2022] at the same level as it was between 2014 and 2015,

- the report reads.

In all eight countries in the region, indicators measuring quality of life have increased significantly over the last two decades, PIE notes.

In the case of Poland, life expectancy increased to 77 years in 2022 from 75 in 2004, the average number of years spent in school increased to 15.9 from 14.8, and per capita PPP income increased to $35,151 from $17,708 in 2004.

In addition, the risk of poverty fell below the EU average in five of the eight member states analysed, and the perception of corruption decreased everywhere except Hungary and Slovenia,

- writes PIE.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/04/17/poles-40-richer-than-they-would-be-without-eu-membership-finds-report/