The Poland case shows that the EU should not be inhibited from putting pressure on member states over gay rights.

Does the EU help or hinder gay rights movements in post-communist Europe? Conor O’Dwyer assesses the impact of EU intervention in the case of gay rights in Poland. He argues that Europeanisation perspectives, in which a country’s policies are assumed to be shaped before and during accession by EU conditionality, offer a fairly poor account of how gay rights have developed in the Polish case. Rather, Poland experienced an immediate backlash against EU pressure over the issue, which polarised opinions and indirectly strengthened the position of pro-gay rights activists. Given that such a backlash can have positive effects, the EU should not be inhibited from exerting pressure in the face of domestic opposition.