Michał Karnowski: Why does the Visegrad Group irritate so many people in the West?

I am often confronted with questions from journalists and politicians from the countries of old Europe, why do we need the Visegrad Group? Sometimes it turns into irritation, into accusations that this community of four central European countries - the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary - is weakening the unity of the European Union. Is this the case in reality?

It is therefore worth taking a broader look at this. There is no doubt that, since the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty, the way in which decisions are made in the EU has changed. Many matters are being imposed on the weaker by the stronger, and Brussels is being used as a tool of power. The Visegrad Group states, and more broadly all smaller and less developed EU Member States, are sometimes looked down on. I would like to mention just two of the many moments that were particularly painful.

The first is when in 2016 Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to open EU borders in the face of a large wave of migration. I am now putting aside the reasons for this wave, whether these were refugees or economic migrants. I would like to emphasise the most fundamental issue: this decision was taken without consultation with other countries, it was taken personally by Mrs Merkel.

And the second moment, not so long ago, when the Union took a decision to change the working conditions of posted workers. Generally speaking, it was that they must now be paid at work in the same way as the workers of the country concerned. This means that one of the most important factors in the competitiveness of Poland, Lithuania and Hungary will be drastically reduced. At the same time, the fact that Western companies are conquering our markets using their competitive advantages - capital, cheap loans, know-how - is considered obvious, natural, good and even wise. This raises increasingly frequent questions as to whether the singe market is still a single market, or whether every economy can count on the same conditions.

Taking this into account, it seems natural that countries that feel threatened by this change in approach visible in the EU are trying to cooperate, seeking ways to increase their importance.

They are, of course, aware that this is not well received by the European powers, especially Germany, which, in my opinion, prefers to develop only direct relations with other countries.

Poland feels all this particularly strongly. Although Poland is the sixth Member State of the Union and is  too big to agree to a submissive position adopted by the Baltic States, it is at the same time too small (I hope that only for the time being) to become an equal player as the five countries preceding it. Its economy is certainly growing in strength, it has the will and energy to act.

In all of this, the historical context is also important. Nobody is able to understand what it means to lose control over one’s own fate until they experience it. Central and eastern Europe has experienced decades and centuries of subjugation to foreign powers, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Prussia, Germany, Russia and the Soviet Union. Poland was partitioned for 123 years and then, after only 20 years of independence, for 50 years it was ruled by a communist totalitarian regime. This, in my opinion, makes people in our region more sensitive to situations in which they feel someone might start to impose his or her own will on them and decide for them.

Michał Karnowski is the editor and commentator of the weekly Sieci and portal wPolityce.pl