City #21, October 2014. Things are going well in Poland. The world volleyball champions (a very popular sport in Poland) also beat Germany at football, and Donald Tusk has just become the Boss of Europe. ‘Our eyes are no longer downcast,’ said one Youropean, ‘they have moved up, maybe to about chest high.’ The stereotype of the Polish plumber still exists, and other Western Europe may still think of them primarily as a source of cheap labour, but the country is steaming ahead, and some economists are predicting that Poland may become one of Europe’s leading powers.

Type of Youropeans? Older people (the over thirties) are still unconvinced: having shaken off the communist yoke so recently they fear replacing it with one made in Brussels. But the advantages of EU membership are undeniable, particularly in the agricultural sector and in the form of some dazzling new highways.