Re: GZG Timeline

And the similarities keep on coming -- albeit not exactly.

Interesting news item in the paper a couple of days ago. The "core" EU 
countries -- the original six founding members -- had a meeting in 
Berlin to discuss the future of the Union and how to head off other 
protest votes in the future. Meanwhile, there was a rival meeting in 
Warsaw headed by Poland and Hungary, who are not happy with the way in 
which the core members are dominating the discussion of the 
post-UK-departure structure of the Union (they weren't invited to the 
Berlin summit), and how the EU has been handling the "Brexit crisis" in 
general. Nine member states attended, and there have been calls for a 
"new-style" EU.

What is most interesting is the map of the two blocs. With the exception

of Spain, the dividing line between the two is the eastern borders of 
Germany and Italy (and a little of Switzerland), and it makes for a very

neat split between east and west Europe. It's not the FSE and the NSL, 
but I found it interesting that there is a political grouping of former 
Warsaw Pact allies known as the Visegrad Group that makes ujp the vocal 
core of the eastern bloc; it wouldn't take too much to see the EU 
fragment along that divider. Spain would be the odd one out, but it's 
been in that position before (shades of the Hapsburgs!) and the whole 
thing is incredibly reminiscent of the FSE-NSL split even though several

countries would be on the other side of the divide.

Interesting times, indeed...

Phil