Thomas Ferenczi on regional solidarity in Europe

"In an enlarged Europe, which often has difficulty conciliating the interests of all its members, most states have chosen to develop relations with their next-door neighbours", notes the columnist Thomas Ferenczi. "Nicolas Sarkozy has just launched the idea of a Mediterranean Union aimed at associating southern Europe with countries on the opposite shore. In the north, the neighbouring Baltic states are emphasizing their differences. In the East, former soviet block countries are also displaying their solidarity. The Central European Initiative (CEI), an organisation created in 1989, two days after the fall of the Berlin wall, to help bring together the states freed from communism and favour their transition towards democracy, today includes 18 countries, 9 of which belong to the Union. ... The central European states have in common a recent part of history which has led them to turn away from the 'Euro-Asian' security zone, previously embodied by the URSS, to become a part of the 'Euro-Atlantic' system'."

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