Przywództwo w Unii Europejskiej w kontekście polskiego przewodnictwa w Radzie Unii Europejskiej

The need of leadership in the European Union becomes especially conspicuous in situations of crisis. So far the member states managed to weather many such crises unscathed and afterwards adopted a new treaty or reached a gentlemen’s agreement to clarify any controversial regulations of the treaty in force. However, the consequences of the global economic crisis for the EU and its particular member states seem to have a deep effect on the nature of the EU and the character of cooperation between its member states. In a natural way therefore there emerges the need for an anti-crisis leadership, especially a collective one. The authors of the article strive to answer the following questions: How does the crisis affect the functioning of EU institutions?; How can the presidency of the EU Council act as the principal coordinator of the EU’s anti-crisis measures?; and finally: How did Poland during its presidency of the EU Council influence the scenarios of overcoming the crisis within the EU?; What was the role of the Polish Prime Minister in this context?