Following the formation of new populist-wing political majorities in the Czech Republic and Austria, the V4 area -association of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia- has gained support in maintaining a block within the European Union that opposes the implementation of EU common policies and EU political integration. Galvanized by the Brexit, the V4 countries has, on a first step, created the Intermarium: an alliance of member states of the European Union located between the Baltic and Adriatic Sea, Germany and former USSR. The initiative, led by Poland and Croatia, is aimed at strengthening mutual security and economic investments in a region often penalized by the French-German axis, which, de facto, rules the European Union.
This initiative might have provided the whole EU with more attention towards regional issues if only some political initiatives had been avoided. On the one hand, Poland introduced a controversial reform of judiciary system that eventually ended under the examination of the European Commission. Poland also worsened its relationships with Ukraine and its neighbors by establishing bilateral relationships on historical issues, i.e. urging Germany to pay for war reparations and closing its borders to a list of Ukrainian citizens due to divergencies of opinion with respect to historical facts. On the other hand, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary still maintain a hard position with respect to the management of the migrant crisis. These countries, along with Poland, still refuse to help other EU countries like Italy, Spain and Greece to redistribute the amount of migrants that, very often in desperate manners, join the EU territory and ask for asylum.
The other big crisis the EU Institutions demonstrated not to be able to manage is Catalonia. After the traditional autonomy of Catalonia was reduced by the Spanish central government in 2010, the ruling majority in the Catalan autonomic parliament declared a unilateral referendum on independence, that was eventually characterized by violences the Spanish police perpetrated on peaceful voters. Regardless of the unilateral nature of the referendum, the ruling majority in the Catalan parliament declared the independence of Catalonia, an act to which the Spanish government responded with the total suspension of the Autonomy and the arrest of some of the members of the Catalan regional government. In the meantime, the President of the autonomic community of Catalonia Carles Puidgemont and other regional ministers moved to Belgium to "internationalize" the crisis and urge the mediation of EU institutions on the "Catalan question".
Instead of mediating, or at least intervening in an equilibrate manner, both the center-right majority and the center-left opposition within the EU Institutions defended the behavior of the Spanish government. With the lone exception of the president of European Council Donald Tusk, all representatives of EU institutions refused to condemn both the violence made by the Spanish police and the "political arrests" of prominent Catalan politicians, allowing the Catalan people to accuse Spain of "selective Justice" in so doing. The EU institutions also failed to consider the decision of Spain to revoke Catalonia's autonomy in 2010 as the origin of the struggle for independence of the Catalans. By its turn, the Spanish government accused the intervention of Russian trolls in the Catalan crisis without, however, providing proves: an initiative that made it easy for the Kremlin to both condemn the European Union of "Russophobia" and underline the incoherence of the Western community by opposing, on the one hand, Catalonia and supporting, on the other, the creation of a fake independent country such Kosovo.
The lack of reasonable and coherent interventions by the Institutions of the European Union on current topics endangers the image of Europe in the international arena, reducing the European Union to a fragmented political entity unable to manage internal crisis in a resolute manner. Declarations of intent for a common defense are, in fact, not enough if EU policies are managed according to the point of view of the French-German axis, perfectly embodied by the President of European Council Jean Claude Juncker, and the interest of the ruling party in Europe, the European Popular Party.
On the one hand, the lack of interest regarding the situation of the Intermarium region demonstrated by the French-Germano centric European Institutions has moved Poland and the other counties of the Intermarium region to assume controversial initiatives not aligned with the European values of tolerance, integration and division of powers. On the other hand, Juncker and company did not criticize the behavior of Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy -who is a member of the European People Party like Juncker- in allowing the use of force on the Catalans and denying to criticize the "political arrests". In so doing, Mr. Juncker failed to understand that the Catalans have historically motivated reasons which should be listened and understood, and not managed by a partisan solidarity to EPP members that might further increase the disaffection of the European citizens towards the European Institutions.
Matteo Cazzulani
@MatteoCazzulani
