EU Pretending To Demonstrate Unity.

With the ceremonial signing of the Rome Declaration on Saturday (25 March), the so-called Bratislava process designed to rethink the EU after the shocking Brexit vote last year has come to an end.

The result is a fragile display of unity, with simmering tensions and deep divisions on policies among the member states.

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  For now, no more summits are planned on the future of Europe. (Photo: Council of the European Union)

Last September, the EU-27 held their first soul-searching meeting in Bratislava in an effort to reconnect with citizens and make the bloc more responsive to their needs and concerns.

Migration, strengthening the EU’s external borders, deeper defence cooperation, and the need to reinforce the European economy after the bruising eurocrisis and subsequent austerity measures emerged as key points of agreement.

The common objectives were designed to allow the bloc to “rebuild a sense of political community”, European Council president Donald Tusk said at the time.

Minimum agenda

There was of course a very tangible and pressing political need to show unity after Brexit - that is not to be underestimated. The message was that however unprecedented it was for a member state to leave the union, it would not shake the bloc.

Therefore, the sheer show of unity is a result not to be downplayed politically.

But there seems to be little more, for now, that leaders could wholeheartedly agree on.

Already in Bratislava, the then Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, embattled at home and needing to put up a fight, refused to hold a press conference together with French president Francois Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel. He said that the meeting was a waste of time.

Renzi’s outburst might have been aimed more at Italian voters rather than at the EU itself. Just like the last-minute objections from Poland and Greece to the Rome Declaration last week were more for internal consumption, it shows that leaders cannot be counted on for not using the EU as punchbag, whenever it suits them politically.

And that puts unity at risk. EU Observer.