Only about half of Polish voters are in favour of joining the EU, down from more than 80 per cent a decade ago, reports Derek Scally in Warsaw
The Russian Market in Warsaw has something for everyone: bootleg CDs, knock-off cosmetics and very real guns.
The open-air market, the largest in Europe, has been held in the crumbling main stadium in Warsaw for a decade after city fathers realised it earned more money than sports events. Traders come here from as far away as Ukraine and Armenia to peddle their wares, but Poland's EU accession and tightening border controls mean the days of the Russian Market are numbered.
"The EU will kill the market," said one man in his early 30s from behind his stall. "I have the kind of education that guaranteed work a few years ago but not any more. When the market closes I will go west to work for a few years and then come back."
Further on, a middle-aged woman selling brand-name vodka of dubious origin says that the Russian Market won't be the only thing to vanish in Poland. "Everything will be destroyed or sold out from under us. I don't know anyone who is pro-EU," she said.
The two views are typical for their generations here in Poland. After a decade of negotiations, opposition to the EU is growing, particularly among older generations who fear that Polish land will be snapped up by foreigners who will corrupt their sons and daughters with their decadent morals.
Mr Andrzej Lepper, a pig farmer turned leader of the Self-Defence Party, is against joining the EU because he feels Poland is selling off on the cheap the independence it won after a 2,000- year struggle. "Germany has always lacked territory, and they will always want to push to the east," Mr Lepper said.
"Nowadays, they don't have to manufacture tanks and guns. Euros and dollars are enough. But even the 25 per cent direct payments they want to give Polish farmers aren't acceptable."
Poland's agricultural sector has been a big stumbling block on the road to EU accession. The farming sector contributes less than 5 per cent of GDP, but employs a quarter of the population. These are the people who made Mr Lepper's anti-EU Self-Defence party one of the largest opposition parties in parliament.
The land purchases question was settled last March after Poland agreed to a transitional period of 12 years, the longest period agreed by any of the accession countries.
If Polish farmers are the greatest EU-sceptics, Polish young people are the greatest believers, except for the young people hanging around a Warsaw ice-cream shop. They are members of the ultra-Catholic League of Polish Families and wear T-shirts with the slogan: "The EU - You Choose, You Lose". "We are against the EU because of abortion, euthanasia and homosexual relationships," says one 23-year-old man, summing up the league's opposition to the perceived loose morals of the EU.
Around half of Polish voters say they support joining the EU at the moment, a big drop from a decade ago when more than 80 per cent were in favour.
"People argue that the EU will bring corruption and drugs like in Amsterdam, but I always cite the example of Ireland as a country with similar values to Poland that has done well from the EU," said Mr Tomasz Banka, director of a foundation in Warsaw which works to "promote European ideals". But he admits his argument is a dangerous one ahead of Ireland's Nice referendum next month.
Tomorrow: Hungary