Bronwen Maddox on the liberating disintegration of EU states

If Belgium were to break apart this could be a "liberating opportunity" that the EU could offer its members, Bronwen Maddox believes writing in The Times.The leader of the separatist New Flemish Alliance Bart de Wever "is respectful about the monarchy, one of the few institutions to span the country. He talks of autonomy, not outright independence. But he has encouraged talk of a peaceful split, as Czechoslovakia managed in 1993. ... Don't get me wrong: this isn't a Brussels fantasy that the nation state will wither away as regions shelter under the great European umbrella. The euro crisis has shown the opposite: that the EU ... has deluded itself that members had come to resemble each other. In many ways, they don't. It remains an honourable ambition for people who feel that they are different from their neighbours, and want to run their own country, to try to do so. One of the liberating opportunities that the EU can still offer millions of people is the chance to do just that. In Belgium's case, they have nothing to lose but the king."

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