Separated under the same roof

After being accused of a lack of solidarity on the refugee issue, relations between Brussels and East European countries are showing signs of wear, and old feuds resurface.

Not since the fall of the Berlin Wall have Eastern and Western Europe appeared so far removed. This divide began making even more headlines as a consequence of the refugee crisis and the European Commission’s decision, in late September, to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers among various member states (with the added participation of Switzerland, Norway and Iceland).

The ruling was opposed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania and received none too warmly by the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland. North American and Western European media began to reproach the East for a “lack of solidarity” that, as Rick Lyman pointed out in The New York Times, “highlights Europe’s cultural and political divisions”. “When joining the European Union”, writes Lyman, “nations are asked to pledge support to a raft of so-called European values, including open markets, transparent government (and) open borders and cultural diversity”. 

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