“Poland deserves its place in European Studies programmes as much as Spain and Italy.”

It is the fifth largest country and the sixth largest economy in the EU.

“Present-day Poland is not as large as Germany or Russia, but once upon a time it was larger than either of them.”

Nowadays, as their neighbour, it should play a part in the way that all of them are seen and studied.

“Since 2004, Poland has been a member state of the European Union.”  

It follows that Poland should  find its place in every European Studies programme.

“For six or seven hundred years, Poland hosted the largest Jewish community in the world.”

This is the reason why the German Nazis based their Holocaust on Polish territory. It follows that an understanding of Poland should form an important element in Jewish Studies.”

“Poland is the largest country in the sizeable European region, often called ‘East Central Europe, that lies between Germany and Russia.”

No-one studying the history, geography, economics, politics or geopolitics of Europe as a whole can afford to ignore this region.

“Within the range of European countries, Poland’s position is most comparable to that of Spain. When Spain possessed the largest empire in the world, multinational Poland-Lithuania was the largest state in Europe.”

Nowadays, these two much smaller, largely Catholic countries have re-joined the European community after emerging from their extremely painful past.