Skutki członkostwa w Unii Europejskiej dla suwerenności i tożsamości kulturowej Polski

State’s sovereignty is its extraordinary value and also an international legal characteristic feature that distinguishes it from other states because it proves its independence. A sovereign state is one that carries out its own unlimited internal and foreign policy, except for limitations made by law and international treaties. However, the cultural identity, which is an essential part of national identity, is the second most important designatum of state, i.e. what distinguishes it from other nations and states. In the past, e.g. during the 123 years of the Partitions of Poland the invaders not only deprived our country of its sovereignty but also made attempts to deprive it of its cultural identity, i.e. to eliminate the use of the mother tongue via Germanization and Russification of the Polish nation and to deprive it of any national cultural achievements, including religion. The present article is an attempt to show the influence of the Polish membership to the European Union on our national sovereignty and cultural identity. The author asks many interesting questions, proposes theses and hypotheses and tries to show that our – voluntary – accession to the European Union was necessary and inevitable and strengthens our state’s sovereignty, serves the Polish reason of state and poses no threat to the cultural identity of Poland. Moreover, the author proves a thesis that, after the accession of Poland to the European Union, Poland not only gained new opportunities of political and economic co-operation, but also possibilities to participate in various cultural programs and use funds for the protection of spiritual and material goods of the national culture, and in this way to strengthen Polish cultural identity and national sovereignty.