The thesis contains a comprehensive analysis of the development of Polish-German relations in the brand new situation coming from the end of the "cold war". The author analyses the conceptual framework, the content and forms of Polish-German relations under the conditions of intensification of European integration. The thesis analysis determines the role and significance of Germany for the policy of Poland's integration with the European Union. It is well established that Germany played a significant role in the process of Poland's integration into the European Union. Due to Germany's support, the state of substantial economic and political strength, the position of which within the EU has a great weight, Poland was able in a relatively short time to carry out domestic reforms and achieve its strategic foreign policy goal - to become a member of the EU. The author defines four phases of Polish-German cooperation, analyse the significance of cooperation within the framework of the Weimar Triangle for the Polish-German relations and for the enlarged EU in whole, clarifies Poland's and Germany's priorities in European policy, examines Poland's and Germany's approaches to the Eastern dimension of the European Union's foreign policy. Poland and Germany have different priorities in European policy and also different vision of national interests in the European integration process. Poland stands for the strengthening of intergovernmental cooperation and infrastructure, while Germany remains in the main the supporter of deepening the integration process and strengthening of supranational infrastructure within the European Union. Whereas Poland, including the period after constitutional crisis within the EU in 2005-2007, stands for the continuation of the EU enlargement process, Germany from the 2005th year has made a departure from its previous enlargement strategy, according to which enlargement and deepening of integration were considered highly associated. The thesis analysis also covers the issues of Polish-German cooperation within the framework of European security policy. Poland's position in the questions of the development of the European security cooperation is that CSDP should enhance the significance of the European states in the transatlantic partnership, and thus intensify cooperation within NATO. However, CSDP should not become a competition policy towards NATO and an instrument of restraint of the USA role in the European security sphere. It is necessary to emphasise that at the beginning of the ХХІth century among the Polish ruling elite concerning international security dominated the thinking under the notion of traditional "Realpolitik", in which leading place have the traditional (military) security strengthening facilities ("hard power"). Whereas the Germany government attaches the greater importance, than the Polish government, to the use of political, economic and cultural facilities, which represent so-called "soft power". Within transatlantic relations Poland focused first of all on the intensification of bilateral relations with the USA, while Germany in transatlantic politics, besides a relationship with the USA, placed special emphasis on multilateral cooperation. This is due, in particular, to the fact that one of the hallmark of Germany's foreign policy is multilateralism. The research conducted in this thesis also deals with the possibilities for trilateral cooperation between Poland, Germany and Ukraine in the process of Ukraine's foreign policy implementation, aimed at European integration. Poland and Germany are partners of special importance for Ukraine. Germany has a favorable strategic position in Europe and is one of the world's industrial and financial powers. Poland, in its turn, is the partner, which can and is willing to promote Ukraine's desire to be integrated with the EU. Main area of such trilateral cooperation identified by the author is security policy.
