The new “EU Political Community”, an invention of French President Emmanuel Macron consisting of the 27-nation bloc and 17 other countries, most of which aspire to join the EU, recently wrapped up its inaugural PR exercise in Prague.
The whole point of this event at Prague Castle seemed to be to convince onlookers of European unity, particularly in favor of Ukraine and against Russia, while papering over any other cracks in the solidarity façade.
All eyes have been on the newest addition to the class: Italian prime minister-elect Georgia Meloni. Her right-wing populist coalition had just been elected and already the knives were out.
Actually, they were out even before the election, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned, in response to a query about the far right being on the cusp of power in Italy, that the bloc had “tools” to deal with member states whose governments drifted away from Brussels’ agenda. So despite von der Leyen and other EU leaders’ ridiculous claims of fighting for democracy in notoriously corrupt Ukraine, apparently by flooding it with endless Western weapons, von der Leyen can’t even bother to pay lip service to the most basic respect of the democratic will of the citizens of Italy.
In line with von der Leyen, French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone said in an interview with Italian newspaper, La Repubblica: “We want to work with Rome but we will monitor respect for rights and freedoms,” adding that “we will pay close attention to respect of values and the rule of law.
The EU has already shown that it is vigilant toward other countries such as Hungary and Poland.” It sure did. Notably by withholding funds from countries that don’t fall in line. The ostensible motive is that these countries lag in the “democratic values” department. That is, in the specific way that EU defines democracy to serve the interests of the Western economic and political establishment, which often diverge from those of the average citizen.
Meloni subsequently commented that the French minister’s words “resemble too much of an unacceptable threat of interference against a sovereign state and a member of the European Union,” and said she hoped the “leftist press”had “misrepresented” Boone’s comments.
So not only are there internal EU divisions festering between average citizens and the top-down policies imposed on them and their governments by Brussels like a Made In Europe straitjacket, but there’s also no shortage of divisions between member states.
The bloc’s current members can’t even get along, and already Brussels has set up a whole new structure in a bid to bring in more players with this new summit. Turkish President Erdogan used his platform to lash out at Greece over their territorial disputes in the region, accusing the EU of supporting illegal initiatives masquerading as unity or solidarity.
The whole bloc is upset with Norway for maintaining high energy prices and profits amid the gas crunch caused by Brussels’ auto-sanctions. German economy minister Robert Habeck brought up the issue of so-called friends like the US and Norway exploiting other EU countries’ desperation through price gouging.
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