State of the Union: The Static State of “Wishful Thinking”

It seems to me that the moto driving EU Policy nowadays is/has been for some time all about a state of  Wishful Thinking – direct action is far away from the equation in so far as dealing with issues head on rather than playing for time with rhetoric or sanctions in the case of adversaries. It’s kind of like someone standing in the middle of the stairs blocking it and not knowing whether to head up or down. We see this in the EU’s dealing with the governments of Poland, Hungary – which have all but given up on Democratic/Liberal values altogether – as well as it’s continued negotiating approach that has allowed the BREXIT saga to stretch up to the present time as I mentioned in previous posts. Nothing exemplifies this static posture than the recent tweet by EU MEP Mr. Guy Verhofstadt on addressing the situation with Poland as you see below and I quote “So my wish, Prime Minister @MorawieckiM, is for you to come back on these fateful decisions and end this march of folly ” particularly if you follow his tweets on this same issue for some time. The EU really needs to grow up and learn to play hardball where it is necessary to protect the EU project otherwise it is a doomed project. Diplomacy most certainly has it’s rightfully prominent place in politics – particularly International affairs – but as they say “there is a time and a place for everything –  sometimes it’s about statements/diplomacy and other times it’s about decisive action” and if you fail to recognize this simple fact in world politics your weakness will be more prominent than any politics you can come with. It ain’t about being arrogant or reckless but rather about being consistently deliberate/firm/pragmatic about the way you do politics and more importantly about how you represent the EU project in challenging times otherwise EU challenges will likely quadruple in number/complexity to the extent that it won’t be worth the effort. 

Just a thought!

The Polish People don’t want to be pushed outside the EU by their government. So my wish, Prime Minister @MorawieckiM, is for you to come back on these fateful decisions and end this march of folly 🇵🇱⚖️🇪🇺 #EPlenary intervention (1/2)👇 pic.twitter.com/nRRsr4ygbE

— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) October 19, 2021