THE VISEGRAD FOUR AND THE INTERMARIUM PERSPECTIVES

It is visible to the naked eye that the EU political formation has faced a serious crisis in last years. Brexit, which obviously was a real surprise for the EU optimists, may well be just a start of further collapse of the institutions of the European Union.

Worth nothing, that intentions to hold similar referendum was expressed by representatives of various political forces not only in West European countries (France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden), but also in Central and East Europe (Czech, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary). The likeliest candidates for exit from the EU according to the Washington Post are: France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

Of course we can debate long about how marginal these political forces are in their countries as well as it could be reminded of their links with the Kremlin. However, despite our openly negative attitude to politicians like Marie Le Pen we can not exclude the possibility that she or Geert Wilders could play the same role in the fate of modern France or the Netherlands as Nigel Farage had played in the British history. Some time before the Brexit Farage also had been considered as a marginal and unpopular politician. But now all we see the result of many years of his work. 

As for Ukraine - the main reason for searching of alternatives to the EU integration for us is due to the need for ensuring of national security. Recall, the European Union has been founded as a basis for further economic and political integration of the European countries in order to avoid wars between them in future. However the union not just failed to prevent the outbreak of Ukrainian-Russian war, started from the annexation of the Crimea, but it also openly ignores the facts of increasing offensive capacity by Russia at its common borders with the countries-members of the EU.

In addition, blatant disregard of obligations on the Budapest Memorandum by the guarantor countries as well as the fact, that one of them (the Russian Federation) has made an intervention in the territory of a sovereign state, calls into question the whole system of modern international law. As regards the Euro-Atlantic vector it could be called rather risky than perspective for Ukraine, especially against the background of current Western policy of "reset relations" with Moscow. The crisis within the EU law and order system (Terrorist attacks in France and Belgium, Christmas unrest in Cologne and other cities in Europe) revealed all the contradictions of basic values of the Western world, and especially the EU, which became aggravated after the hostilities in Syria, when Europe has opened its borders for the residents of "Third World," that resulted in serious problems in the area of public safety. The refugee crisis, which became one of the catalysts for the possible collapse of the EU, has not been resolved. Now this resulted in the autonomisation of the Visegrad Group countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Czeck, Poland) based on disagreement with the "migrant quotas" policy. In addition, the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban proposed to hold a referendum on the feasibility of distribution "quota refugee" between the member states.

The influence of the Russian lobby in Europe, that is considering it as an arena of struggle with the US for zones of influence, shows the crisis of European sovereignty, that, combined with high level of bureaucracy in the EU prevents to hold its positive reformation on the initiative of national governments. It is naturally, that those frankly belated attempts of France and Germany (especially after they lost one of the EU pillars after Brexit) to reduce sovereignty of the EU member countries through depriving them of the right to an independent foreign policy and control over national armed forces and secret services, have faced opposition from the leadership and the population of the countries of the Visegrad Group (also known as the Vishegrad Four - V4).

Now the V4 acquiring the features of autonomy within the EU. Potentially the Visegrad Four, which almost gained Croatia as its fifth member, could merge with the Group of Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea cooperation, initiated by Croatia's leadership.  

On February 15, 2016 Foreign Ministers of Poland, Czech, Hungary and Slovakia gathered in Prague to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Vishegrad Four. During the meeting they also developed a common course on the Brussels' program on the distribution of migrant quotas among the EU member countries. It was then being accused by the German leadership of attempt to raise a new "iron curtain" in the heart of Europe, the V4 first declared itself as an independent geopolitical force that is challenging one of the unspoken EU leaders - Angela Merkel. 

The recent proposition of the Polish side to include Ukraine and Romania into the Visegrad Group indicate the maturity of idea to secede from the geopolitical orbit of "Old Europe," as well as need to establish an alternative axis of the European integration, which would be able to build a complete system of international security in accordance with today's challenges. And the results of an inaugural conference of the Intermarium Development Assistance Group, which was held by the Azov movement on July 2-3 in Kyiv show us that this project has already being implemented in practice.

Source: AzovPress