Poland as the New Awkward Partner: Differentiated Integration or Differentiated Disintegration?

The departure of the British 'awkward partner' has drawn attention to other EU member states who, until recently, could easily hide behind the UK and whose divergent preferences are only now coming to the fore of European politics and policies of differentiation. In particular, CEE member states have been typically associated with temporary instrumental differentiation resulting from enlargement, but rarely with more durable differentiation resulting from identity and sovereignty concerns. Against this background the present paper deals with the puzzling case of Poland - an awkward partner that talks unity but acts differentiation. In order to solve the puzzle, two questions are put forward: first, how the reality of differentiation champion co-exists with the narrative of unity supporter; and second, to what extent Poland's 'awkwardness' is not only about differentiated integration, but also, increasingly, about differentiated disintegration: policy dismantling, non-compliance, as well as renationalization claims and practices.