The Quirinale Treaty

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/italy-france-to-sign-rome-treaty-aimed-at-changing-eu-power-balance-sources/ar-AAQMqmT

After several years of tensions, France and Italy have stunned some within the political and diplomatic communities with the announcement of the Quirinale Treaty.

It represents the healing of open wounds, the closing of a multi-year rift which weakened an already hurting and shaken EU establishment. And yet it represents more than merely a reestablished friendship – in some respects the treaty further undermines the EU, or at least the vision of what the EU was supposed to represent.

On the one hand it's an attempt to woo Italy away from a Far-Right trajectory. It's meant to give a boost to established parties and weaken the hand of political groups like the Right-wing Lega and the populist and iconoclast Five-Star Movement (M5S)

While viewed as a victory for France it also exposes the fact that the French Establishment (or at least those surrounding Macron) acknowledges that in the 2019 Aachen Treaty with Germany – France is the junior partner. And thus, France seeks to bolster its standing by forming alliances on its own, arrangements in which it has seniority and greater influence.   

The article all but acknowledges that another impetus for the treaty is an attempt by France (and one might say Centre-Right forces in general) to counter the influence of the German-Left coalition which is about to come into power. With Merkel on the way out, Germany is in flux and momentarily weakened. While the Quirinale Treaty was being worked on back in 2018 (before it went into cold storage for a few years), the timing of the signing and the ceremony are interesting to say the least.

Under all these scenarios a painful truth is revealed. The political structure of the EU is not enough to manage the affairs of Europe. What we're seeing is separate EU-independent blocs forming. All the players are within the EU, but they're engaged in side-scheming – erecting parallel or shadow structures with which to govern, influence, manipulate, and control affairs. It's reminiscent of the triumvirates which appeared in the Roman Republic – political arrangements meant to consolidate and stabilise power but which actually contributed to tension, generated crises, and ultimately played a role in the downfall of the Republic.

The EU is not enough, and while these shadow arrangements are now in a stage of proliferation – one thinks also of a group like the Visegrad Four (V4), it also indicates that political strategists are trying to think a few steps ahead and form structures for a day in which the EU may no longer be relevant or even exist.

Whether the Quirinale Treaty will help to assuage Rome-Paris tensions over immigration and fiscal policy, or questions regarding Libya is yet to be seen. These are practical issues yet to be resolved. It is the ideological framework and assumptions behind the Quirinale Treaty that demand our interest.