Comfort and scepticism: Poland marks 20 years of EU membership

Young people in Poland feel comfortable in Europe, but some are increasingly sceptical about EU membership.

Transcript

00:00 A whole new generation has grown up in Poland, no longer remembering their country outside

00:05 of the European Union. Like Nadia, who together with other young activists are fighting for

00:09 access to abortion across the bloc. They're trying to collect one million signatures for

00:14 a transnational European initiative to be considered.

00:17 We want to show the members of the Sejm that we are not dependent on them, and that they

00:24 will allow us to have an abortion or not. Abortions are happening, anyway. We can go a little higher,

00:31 we can go to the European Union, and we can continue to fight for abortion to be available

00:38 to all citizens of the EU.

00:40 The United States was once the country where young people wanted to go, but now Europe

00:46 is more appealing.

00:49 I used to plan to go to America, for sure. But comparing to what opportunities and what

00:55 life looks like in these European countries, and what it looks like in the United States,

01:02 where, for example, not everyone can afford higher education, people take out loans, and

01:09 here, anyone who graduates can go to the United States.

01:14 There are also sceptics, and recently their numbers have increased among younger Poles.

01:21 As a sovereign country, we should have the right to impose our own foreign policy or education.

01:28 These are, however, the only opportunities that we have.

01:33 We have to be able to do it.

01:35 We have to be able to do it.

01:37 We have to be able to do it.

01:44 These are important issues, important sectors of the country's life and functioning,

01:51 and we have to be sovereign in this regard.

01:54 We cannot give the EU or any other international organization the right to impose it on us.

02:04 68% of young Poles took part in the election last October.

02:09 However, whether this mobilization will be repeated in the European election is still

02:14 a big question mark, as European campaigns are not yet well heard in Poland.

02:19 Magdalena Chodowny for Euronews, from Warsaw.

02:21 more soon.