Polish Presidency: Council info and EU Publications

The motto, of the Polish Presidency is: Security, Europe! Our Union was born as a project of peace after World War II, and we need to strengthen once again our security in order to ensure peace in Europe.

European Council conclusions from 2004 onwards are available in the public register of official documents.

Discover more about the role of the presidency, what does holding the presidency of the Council of the EU mean, what are the tasks of the presidency.

The system of rotating presidencies goes back to the very beginning of the European integration. Every six months, a member state becomes the president of the Council of the EU and helps ensure the smooth running of the EU legislative process.

Curious to know more about what does holding the presidency of the Council of the EU mean? More than you might think! Read our scroll story to find out more.

The Polish presidency is focusing on strengthening seven dimensions of European security:

- defence and security
- protection of people and borders
- resistance to foreign interference and disinformation
- ensuring security and freedom of business
- the energy transition
- competitive and resilient agriculture
- health security

See all the Council presidencies up to 2030.

EU leaders collectively discuss and agree the EU’s direction and goals for 2024-2029.

Rule of law is one of the EU’s founding values, and essential to its very functioning. It is fundamental for the application of EU law, protects citizens and establishes the conditions for a well-functioning single market.

The EU’s budget has developed over several decades in step with the evolution of the European Union. It provides for the financing of programmes and actions in all EU policy areas, from agriculture and regional policy, to research, enterprise and space.

The EU and its member states are intensifying efforts to establish an effective, humanitarian and safe European migration policy.

The EU integrates new members through the enlargement process once they meet a number of political and economic conditions. The process encourages democratic and economic reforms in countries that want to become EU members and promotes greater stability and prosperity in Europe.

To better protect its citizens and defend its values, the EU needs to take strategic action on defence and increase its capacity to act autonomously.

The EU’s industrial policy aims to strengthen the competitiveness of EU industry and to promote a more sustainable, resilient and digitalised economy that creates jobs.

Europe’s future depends on a healthy planet. EU countries are committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, delivering on the commitments under the Paris Agreement. The European Green Deal is the EU’s strategy for reaching the 2050 goal.

Economic governance is a key pillar of the architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union, aiming to detect and correct economic imbalances that could weaken national economies or affect other EU countries through cross-border spillovers.

The single market ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. It facilitates everyday life, stimulates growth and boosts innovation.

The common agricultural policy (CAP) supports farmers in their role as providers of high-quality and affordable food for EU citizens.

The European Health Union is a package of regulations to reinforce coordination and to strengthen the role of EU agencies in order to be better prepared to fight cross-border health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EU helps to improve public health through funding and legislation on tackling cross-border health threats, medicines, patient's rights in cross-border healthcare, disease prevention and promotion of good health.

The EU is working on various fronts to promote cyber resilience, fight cybercrime, and boost cyber diplomacy and defence.

The EU's digital services act (DSA) aims to create a safer, more transparent internet. By making online platforms accountable for the way they manage and moderate content, the DSA helps combat the spread of harmful content online.

Dedicated collection created by the Council Library. Examines how the work of European Council, Council of the European Union and GSC is viewed by the academia.
Documents on the previous presidencies can be found here

CASE is the Council's archives search tool, which gives you access to archival descriptions. You can search by title, content description or Council/Commission document number. Searches can be refined by sub-collection and year.
The archival descriptions in CASE are currently only available in French. You will therefore need to use French search terms.

Poland assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 January, and will hold the office until 30 June 2025. This is the second Polish Presidency after the country's first stint in 2011. Poland is the opening member of a new trio, along with Denmark and Cyprus. Following Poland, Denmark will take over the presidency on 1 July 2025.

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland, in force since 1997, sets out a unitary, democratic state ruled by law and implementing the principles of social justice. The President of the Republic and the Council of Ministers (government) serve as the executive, while the Sejm (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) are vested with legislative power (Article 10). The Senate is considered a repository of democratic legitimacy on an equal footing with the Sejm, but the dominance of the Sejm in the legislative process is constitutionally guaranteed. The Sejm alone ultimately decides on the appointment of the government, on the wording of legislation, and on the acceptance or rejection of a presidential veto, among other things.

This paper aims to delve into some of the vulnerabilities associated with the EU's energy transition, using wind energy as a case study for broader issues affecting the renewable industry as a whole. The first part assesses the current state of wind energy in the EU. The second part examines the obstacles the wind sector faces, particularly the dependency on China for critical materials and components, as well as other factors that might threaten the EU's ambitions. The third part illustrates possible strategies to mitigate these challenges, enhancing the EU's strategic autonomy and ensuring the success of its green transition.

This study aims to open a dialogue among policy makers and feed discussions on the future of Cohesion Policy. It looks to inform decisions about possible futures based on shared EU values that shape both the Single Market and Cohesion Policy. To do so, this study looks into the historical evolution of the Single Market and Cohesion Policy. It also links member state contributions to the EU budget and funding from Cohesion Policy, as well as the latter’s economic and non-economic spill overs. Furthermore, the study presents three future scenarios for Cohesion Policy and offers conclusions and recommendations.

Totalling EUR 392 billion for the 2021-2027 period, Cohesion Policy is the main EU investment policy to implement the Treaty objective of strengthening the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the EU and reducing disparities between the levels of development of various regions. Cohesion Policy targets all regions and cities in the European Union in order to support job creation, business competitiveness, economic growth and sustainable development, and improve citizens’ quality of life.

This report uses rich global survey data from the Gallup World Poll to analyse the relationship between environmental conditions, displacement and migration. The report confirms the established finding that the connections between environmental factors and human mobility patterns at various spatial scales are complex and context specific. In particular, the report suggests that in less-developed regions an expectation of higher risks of future environmental disasters leads to a lower individual desire to migrate internationally.

This foresight study explores possible and necessary changes in the European social and economic systems as the European Union engages in managing sustainability transitions towards 2050. It presents strategic areas of intervention covering a new social contract, governance for sustainability, people and economy, and the global perspective on sustainability. It reflects on the agency of EU actors (such as government at various levels, business, and communities) to address the strategic areas of intervention as part of collectively addressing sustainability transitions.

After more than 60 years of peace, Europe faced a watershed moment in its security, in February 2022. Following a brief overview of how years of underinvestment and fragmentation have left many weaknesses in EU defence, this study analyses the evolution of the EU defence strategy, the contribution by the EU budget and by national budgets. Finally, the paper investigates to what extent the recent increase of defence spending can have a positive effect on growth, by examining the link between defence spending and economic growth, on the basis of the existing literature.

The EU defence industry is characterised by economic and technological components that are important factors for Europe’s industrial competitiveness. The European Defence Agency supports Member States in improving their defence capabilities and contributes to the development of their defence industry. The sector has recently decided to address some of its main challenges, including market fragmentation and low spending levels, by reinforcing common procurement and enhancing defence expenditure.

The founding aspiration of European integration was to provide peace. Over the decades, commitment to democracy has become a feature of the EU, enshrined in the Treaty of Lisbon among its core values. This policy analysis presents and discusses the evolving discourses and policies of the EU with regard to democracy, focusing on the impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had on this process.

This paper reviews the state of EU competitiveness and introduces a strategy to improve it, based on medium-term, sector-level coordination of Member State reform policies and/or investments. The idea is illustrated with two examples: an investment and reform programme to create a single EU electricity market and an Advanced Research Projects Agency (EU-ARPA). This document was provided/prepared by the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit at the request of the ECON Committee.

This short-term outlook edition provides a forecast of market developments for key agricultural markets in 2024 and 2025 (only for cereal and oilseeds), based on market intelligence available until mid-March 2024. Presented prospects are taking into account (among other factors) the latest available information on availability and prices of inputs (e.g. feed, energy, fertilisers) and consumer price developments (food inflation), to the extent possible. A certain level of uncertainty is linked to the future weather developments as well as geopolitical and economic events impacting global markets in the future. These developments will be further followed and the next edition will be published in Autumn 2024.

HERA was created to strengthen Europe’s ability to ensure the provision of medical countermeasures in case of a pandemic or other large-scale health threats. This implies identifying possible threats, assessing existing countermeasures, establishing stocks or supporting the development of new countermeasures, as well as making sure that, if needed, we will have the capacity to produce them quickly and at mass.

The interaction of “Contracts”, “Markets” and “Law and Regulation” have informed the economic analysis of market economies for over 40 years. One of the main lessons learnt is that (contracts), (markets) and (law and regulation) always interact and co-determine the outcome and performances of the electricity industry. This study identifies the “electricity world” in which long term contracts (LTCs) can be implemented.

This Chaillot Paper delves into the phenomenon of foreign interference and the risk it poses to democratic societies. It explores the interplay between information manipulation and disruptive cyber operations, revealing their role as complementary components within a broader strategy. It offers targeted recommendations on how the EU can significantly bolster its defences and resilience against this threat.

This report investigates the potential effects of 12 free trade agreements (FTAs) under the current EU trade agenda. For this, it quantifies the cumulated sectoral impacts in terms of bilateral trade, production, demand, and price developments. Moreover, it provides insights on the evolution of supply, demand, and farm-gate prices for the most relevant EU agricultural commodity markets. In contrast to a forecast exercise, this analysis compares two variants of a trade liberalisation scenario (conservative and ambitious) to a business-as-usual (baseline) situation in 2030. The study confirms that the analysed free trade agreements have the potential to benefit the EU agri-food sector when considered simultaneously. It also highlights the vulnerability of the beef, sheep meat, poultry, sugar, and rice sectors.

Foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) challenges EU strategic interests in the Eastern Neighbourhood, impacting not just communication and democratic processes but also partner countries' security. In the 'Eastern trio' of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, FIMI risks have escalated, threatening both candidate countries and the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

A key challenge for global health researchers is understanding how research influences policy. Of relevance here is Kingdon’s ‘three streams’ theory, which proposes that policies emerge when ‘windows of opportunity’ open and three ‘streams’—problems, policies, and politics – converge. The UHC2030 Action Agenda (UHC2030, 2023) embraces this approach, connecting research with global health policymaking and shaping political change. During the review of this global action agenda in 2022, collaborators identified the pandemicinduced ‘window of opportunity’ for better connecting policies for universal health coverage (UHC) and health security; building upon contemporary research showing that countries that had connected approaches to UHC and health security were more resilient in their pandemic response.