The reason for carrying out a survey of Polish public opinion, the results of which are presented in this report, was the crisis in the relations between the Polish government and the institutions of the European Union concerning primarily, but not exclusively, the changes to the functioning of the justice system in Poland which have been under implementation since 2015. In the opinion of the European Commission, which in December 2017 initiated the so-called breach procedure under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), these changes are in conflict with EU law and the values listed in Article 2 of the TEU, including but not limited to the principle of the rule of law. The crisis in the relations with Brussels intensified in December 2020 when Poland and Hungary threatened to veto the 2021–2027 EU budget and the Recovery Fund because of the adoption of the so-called rule of law mechanism.
