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Polens neue Regierung verfolgt das Ziel, den verfassungsmäßigen, institutionellen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Status des Landes zu verändern. Daraus ist ein Streit mit der EU entstanden. Im Kern betrifft er die Grenzen der politischen Souveränität eines Mitgliedstaates, welche die EU akzeptiert. Doch auch das gesamte EU-System steht unter Veränderungsdruck. Ausdruck davon ist das Krisenbündel aus Eurokrise, Ukrainekrise und Flüchtlingskrise, die alle die Handlungsdefizite der Union offenlegen. Polen und Ungarn beenden die Phase der postkommunistischen Transformation und suchen einen Ausweg aus der "Falle des abhängigen Wachstums". Sie streben ein eigenständigeres sozioökonomisches Modell an und passen den rechtlichen und politischen Rahmen an, nicht ohne Fehler zu begehen. Das erschwert ihre Beziehungen zur EU. Die PiS sieht Polens Zukunft in der EU künftig eher an der Seite Londons als an der Berlins. (Osteuropa (Berlin) / SWP)

Can we assume, then, that more than the doctrine of faith, it was this lived experience which placed the Christians ever anew before this difficult question: Of what use are history and politics to Christianity? Can we not make do without them? Tertullian's famous question – "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?" – began a centuries-old dispute about the relation between theology and philosophy, between faith and reason, which became a principle axis of tension between Christianity and the Hellenistic legacy. But Tertullian's question can also be understood as pertaining to the problem of Christianity's relation to history and politics: What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem, the Agora with the Temple, the polis with the Church? Thus the tension between Christianity and the classical world takes on yet another dimension. It is the conflict of faith and eternity with history and politics, of the faithful pilgrim member of the People of God with the loyal citizen of a political community. Christianity attempted to resolve this conflict by reformulating the fundamental concepts of classical politics and philosophy, but the main doubts still remained, and led to new tensions and currents within Christianity itself.

In the 9/2007 IP edition, WamS-editor Alan Posener declared that the western countries of the European empire are & remain the ideal to which an accession country has to conform. But what do the Eastern Europeans say about that [ for instance, regarding the historical legitimation of the European unification? Adapted from the source document.