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University lecturer Ingmar Niemann on Visegrád countries

2021-11-06T14:37:09.961Z


Kempten - After Great Britain left the EU, there is now a new cross-driver in the form of a member state for those responsible in Brussels.


Kempten - After Great Britain left the EU, there is now a new cross-driver in the form of a member state for those responsible in Brussels.

Poland, or rather its government led by the PiS party, is currently refusing to recognize judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and to implement them in the country.

Rather, one regards one's own constitution as superior and consistently opposes the requirements of Brussels.

The European Court of Justice currently considers the disciplinary chamber introduced by the Polish government to be inconsistent with EU law, as it jeopardizes the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

After Poland did not react to the demands from Brussels, the ECJ ordered fines of one million euros per day if the government in Poland does not give in to Brussels' pressure.

The Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro countered the EU's demand: "There will be no money flowing into Brussels."

V4 - a sworn community?

The current dispute takes place during a noticeable cooling of relations between the western EU countries, led by Germany, and the so-called Visegrád states. The Visegrád states, also known as V4, include Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Here again it is the two governments of Poland and Hungary that have been in dispute with Brussels for some time. Last week, the university lecturer Ingmar Niemann held a well-attended lecture on this issue at Haus International with the question: "V4 - a conspiratorial community?" 

At the beginning of his explanations, Niemann looked back. At a meeting of the three heads of state Václav Havel, Lech Walesa and József Antall at Visegrád Castle in Hungary in 1999, they decided to form a kind of unofficial alliance. The allies emphasized their common historical prerequisites and the centuries of oppression by the surrounding great powers Germany, Austria and Russia. Despite these historically based tensions between the founding members and their large neighbors, the informal alliance tries today to mediate between East and West. A few years later Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO, followed by Slovakia in March 2004. In the same year the Visegrád countries joined the European Union. However, so far only Slovakia has joined the euro,the common currency. Since then, all four countries have worked with the weight of their intra-European alliance to strengthen their influence in both the EU and NATO. In addition, the economic and cultural contacts with the West could have been intensified again. The establishment of the Central European Free Trade Area (CEFTA) and the launch of the International Visegrád Fund to promote cross-border cooperation were milestones in this development.The establishment of the Central European Free Trade Area (CEFTA) and the launch of the International Visegrád Fund to promote cross-border cooperation were milestones in this development.The establishment of the Central European Free Trade Area (CEFTA) and the launch of the International Visegrád Fund to promote cross-border cooperation were milestones in this development. 

Light and shadow

In his lecture, Niemann highlighted the achievements of the intra-European cooperation alliance, but at the same time highlighted its downsides.

All four Visegrád states have brought steady economic growth over the past 20 years.

Between 1991 and 2015, the gross domestic product per capita in all four countries roughly quadrupled.

All V4 states are strategic growth markets, with increasing private consumption, exports and investments.

The acceptance of digital progress within societies is pronounced and Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest could also hope for further EU funding in the future.

A growing shortage of skilled workers and internal political tensions had a negative impact. We are united on important issues vis-à-vis Brussels. In principle, all governments and their peoples rejected an immigration policy based on the German model. Nobody joins a quota for the distribution of refugees. Viktor Orbán in particular shows himself to be the booming loudspeaker of the V4, but Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has also been blowing the same horn since Belarus used refugee contingents as a means of political pressure to destabilize Poland.

All V4s would not agree to a further deepening of the EU without corresponding contracts. The military obligation to have a special task force ready for 2023 corresponds to the formation of the V4-EU-Battlegroup. In foreign policy, they want a better relationship with Russia, even though Poland rejects the Russian North Stream II pipeline.

"Basically, the four former Warsaw Pact states still find it difficult to adopt the rule of law that is common in Western countries," says Niemann.

There are still democratic deficits in certain social fields, even though Western states could show more appreciation for the achievements of the V4 states in the peaceful liberation from communism, said Niemann.

Finally, a look at Ursula von der Leyen's appointment as EU Commission President shows that things are not decided on a grassroots basis in Brussels, but often "par ordre du mufti".

Also read: »On the edge of the abyss, regression is progress«

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-06

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