When asked what the best case post-Brexit scenario would be from the perspective of Warsaw, a leading Polish politician joked that it would be for someone to invent a time machine.
Although Polish-British relations have been complicated in recent years given the tensions generated by the influx of Poles into the UK since 2004, the two countries nonetheless shared many common interests in the European Union, and as illustrated by the quip, the loss of the Britain will be painful for Poland.
Broadly speaking, both countries valued the EU’s single market and wanted to see it expanded as well as safeguarded against potential encroachment of eurozone integration.
They also share an Atlanticist outlook and believed the EU should stand firm vis-à-vis Russia while other member states were more willing to give Russia the benefit of the doubt and ease the economic sanctions imposed in the wake of its aggression in Ukraine.
