There have been many questions but no real answer to the Germans and French signing the Treaty of Aachen 15 months ago, which served to shore up the Berlin-Paris axis that stands at the core of the European Union power structure.
While the general silence that followed the treaty signing was to be expected from those who are acquiescent to that particular power axis, those who are critical of the course the EU is taking should not only raise their voice but should also be taking direct action.
The correct answer to the Aachen treaty is the signing of an equivalent pact by the Visegrád Four (V4) countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia with the option for other Central and Eastern European states to join in. Our cooperation could include cultural, infrastructure and judicial matters that are vital to our interests.
This is especially important at a time when the European People’s Party (EPP) and its leader, Donald Tusk, are attacking Hungary and the other V4 countries. Tusk is even advocating that Hungary be expelled from the political group in the European Parliament.
At the same time, the V4 countries are under intense pressure from the European Court of Justice over their resistance to the EU’s migrant quota policy after states like Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic rejected the EU’s attempts to distribute 160,000 migrants across the continent.
There is no barrier to a treaty between V4 countries as Aachen clearly highlights the EU’s encouragement of closer cooperation within European law, an instrument which should not be neglected by states in Central Europe.
Another element to ensure we protect and strengthen our CEE identity would involve an agreement on an international family rights convention. This would serve to counter pressure being applied to CEE states to ratify the gender-oriented Istanbul Convention, which is not a document of the EU.
This document has allowed activist and progressive groups to try and force CEE countries reject their principles and adopt legislation that stands in violation of existing EU treaties.
For example, Bulgaria’s constitutional court has ruled that the Istanbul Convention is contrary to family rights guaranteed in that country’s constitution. In Slovakia, the government in power has adamantly opposed the Istanbul Convention’s ratification and parliament has wholeheartedly rejected it. The Hungarian government is campaigning against gender ideology and even submitted a bill to parliament that would replace gender with “birth gender”, a new and unalterable category that would emphasize biological gender.
