Poland’s second golden age: Europe’s unlikely star

OVER most of the past decade, the European Union has been in a sorry state. Countries such as Greece and the newest member, Croatia, are basket-cases. Ordinary voters have lost trust in the EU: at the recent European elections barely two-fifths of them bothered to cast a ballot and almost a third of those who did backed anti-European or populist parties. Instead of devising a convincing response, European leaders will spend this week’s summit bickering over whether Jean-Claude Juncker, an uninspiring old-school federalist from Luxembourg, is the right person to run the European Commission.Yet one big country defies the general gloom: Poland, the subject of our special report this week. Once considered the problem child of central Europe, Poland has seen its economy grow since the collapse of communism by more than any other in the EU. It was the only EU member to avoid a recession during the financial crisis. And it has managed to have more cordial relations than ever before with its two...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1mxdAHm