Splits
over EU test relations between Visegrad Four
Issue
of reforming Brussels is dividing regional alliances ahead of talks
on Brexit
7 HOURS AGO by:
Henry Foy in Warsaw and Andrew Byrne in Budapest
Even though they
were relative latecomers to the EU, the bloc’s central European
members managed to maximised their clout by working and voting
together in Brussels.
Now the ties that
bind Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — the
so-called Visegrad Four — are beginning to fray, undermining their
influence in the EU.
Divergent responses
to the question of how the EU moves on after Brexit are splitting the
quartet, named after the Hungarian town where the four countries
agreed to form an alliance in 1991. Poland and Hungary are
increasingly animated by Eurosceptic and illiberal rhetoric that
diplomats say is distancing them from Slovakia and the Czech
Republic.
“Visegrad may seem
coherent from the outside, but when it comes to real foreign policy
strategies, [the] Czech Republic and Slovakia are looking elsewhere,”
said Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital, a Budapest
think-tank. “They still feel that aligning with the EU mainstream
is far more valuable than for the V4 to stand together and alone.”
Poland’s ruling
Law and Justice party and Hungary’s government have emerged as
Brussels’ most vocal critics following the Brexit referendum,
jointly calling for radical changes to the EU’s governing treaties.
Viktor Orban, the
Hungarian prime minister, on Sunday held a national referendum to
reject EU migration policies, then blasted Brussels’ ruling elite
as “loud, anti-democratic and violent”. Meanwhile, the Law and
Justice party is being investigated by the EU for breaching rules
safeguarding democracy.
Their drive to
reduce the power of EU institutions to create a looser “union of
national capitals” has startled officials in Prague and Bratislava,
who have responded by distancing themselves from their partners and
emphasising their close relationship with Brussels and Berlin.
As Mr Orban took his
latest swipe at Brussels, Slovakia was this week hosting a visit from
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in an effort to
reaffirm its relationship with Berlin.
Rather than viewing
Brexit as a threat, the EU should treat it as an opportunity
“Two plus two has
become the new normal,” one senior diplomat from the region told
the Financial Times. “[Since the summer] the atmosphere has changed
and the chemistry in the group has got much worse.”
Such divergence,
diplomats warn, will weaken the hand of a group that has steadily
gained sway in the EU since its members joined the bloc in 2004. Its
most obvious achievement was the election of Polish prime minister
Donald Tusk as EU council president in 2014.
But Visegrad
influence has also secured huge EU subsidies to upgrade eastern
Europe’s roads, railways and cities; to pay for infrastructure to
connect their energy networks; and diluted climate change rules that
would have hurt their coal mines and related power stations. The
group was also the key stumbling block that thwarted David Cameron’s
attempts to secure migration curbs as part of his EU renegotiation
efforts.
Slovakia is inside
the eurozone, making it more integrated in the bloc. As the current
holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, it has tried to adopt the
role of a consensual broker and tone down its nationalist stance. The
Czech Republic has traditionally seen itself as the most “western”
of the group, and values its relationship with Germany — the EU’s
most important power broker — more than any of its allies. While
the Czech and Slovak governments support some form of EU reform, they
are uncomfortable with some of the rhetoric coming out of Warsaw and
Budapest.
Despite their
resistance, Polish and Hungarian officials have repeatedly insisted
that the four countries jointly support changes to the EU’s
governing treaties. That has made the regular meetings between the
leaders of the four countries ahead of all EU summits increasingly
prickly, officials that have attended the meetings say.
Poland and Hungary
should beware of undermining EU values
“There are some
countries that want to go deeper in reforms,” Slovakian prime
minister Robert Fico said this month, in a reference to Poland and
Hungary. “I do not think that everything is OK, but at the same
time I do not think we should go near the treaties.”
Two diplomats from
the region said Prague and Bratislava could start showcasing
alternative alliances, including with Austria, as a way of signalling
displeasure with the harsh rhetoric coming from hardliners in the
group. There is also resistance to Mr Orban's suggestion of expanding
V4 co-operation to include Croatia, which is seen as an attempt to
tilt the group’s ideological balance towards Warsaw and Budapest.
“We don’t want to kill off Visegrad co-operation, we see great
value in it,” said one diplomat from the region. “But we don’t
want it to be used as a shield for some kind of crazy cultural
revolution.”
“It is getting
less and less comfortable to be seen as part of the bloc … V4
is a toxic brand,” said one Czech official. “All we can do is
send messages to the west and attempt damage limitation.”
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