Europe’s defining choice on Poland
Europe’s decision on whether or not to declare Poland in breach with European rule of law standards comes down to a choice between principles and pragmatism
Experts & Staff
Pawel Zerka
Senior Policy Fellow
Areas of expertise
European public opinion, economic sovereignty, Poland and France in the EU
Languages
English, French, Spanish and Polish
Biography
Pawel Zerka is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
He is a lead ECFR analyst on European public opinion. He contributes to ECFR’s Re:shape Global Europe project, which seeks to develop new strategies for Europeans to understand and engage with the changing international order. Pawel is also engaged in discussions about Europe’s economic statecraft, and he works on Polish and European foreign policy. Based at ECFR’s Paris office, he has been part of the team since August 2017.
Previously, Zerka worked as expert and head of programmes at two leading Polish think tanks, demosEUROPA-Centre for European Strategy and WiseEuropa. Zerka holds a PhD in economics and a master’s degree in international relations from the Warsaw School of Economics, having also studied at SciencesPo Bordeaux and Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Poland’s facelift to win back friends in Europe
It will take more than superficial changes to alter the course of Poland’s relationship with Europe
In the media
Pawel Zerka on the mood in the EU in the run-up to the upcoming European Parliament elections
The possible outcome of the upcoming elections puts the European People’s Party in a very favourable position – for the first time, a right-wing bloc could have a majority in the European Parliament
Paweł Zerka on the upcoming elections to the European Parliament
Pro-European parties have only two months left to restore confidence in a strong Europe
Pawel Zerka had a commentary published on Les Echos on European elections, and in what ways pro-European parties need to keep mobilizing their voters in the face of increasingly powerful anti-European parties
It is worth remembering that European far-right parties disagree with each other on certain issues, such as the war in Ukraine
Pawel Zerka analyses ECFR’s survey on the impact on European society of issues such as immigration and the rise of the far right, issues that are central to the European election campaign in June
European citizens cannot influence the outcome of the US presidential election or the events on the battlefield in Ukraine, but the EU elections in June offer them a rare opportunity to have an impact
Pawel Zerka commenting on the latest ECFR poll for Dnevnik