The Mediterranean, in my opinion, means a certain space, as one of my colleagues says, "the space of geopolitical design." It is a space spread between three seas, which arose after the First World War as a result of the collapse of empires, when it was possible to realize the ambitions of many peoples of our part of Europe to get their own states.
They wanted to organize together in cooperation on the plane of space, which was previously used by empires. Therefore, we can assume that the Intermarium is a space where the question arises: can we organize together without an empire, such as Russia, Austria, Prussia or another?
In terms of the Three Seas, this is an idea that has been debated in Poland for many years. This means including only those countries in the Intermarium that are in the EU. Personally, I was very unhappy that Ukraine could not be included in the Three Seas, as the tradition of Polish political thought about the Intermarium, particularly in the 1970s on the part of the opposition, was that Ukraine should be part of the space. For me, this is obvious.
The third concept, the Three Seas Initiative. It is a concrete initiative that organizes countries within the framework of political, and first of all economic. If we look at the European context, it is a mistake not to see the bridge, which will allow Ukraine to be included in modern thinking about the Intermarium. Because, to some extent, we are all attached to the EU - Poland is a member and Ukraine is an associate member. The Association Agreement can be considered as a certain degree of membership. In addition, we are connected by the Eastern Partnership. All this suggests that we can think of another form of organization of countries in the Intermarium. The ambitions of those states that are associate members of the EU or members of the Eastern Partnership must also be taken into account.
Another important aspect is what is happening in Belarus. This allows us to think about the possibility of supplementing the Intermarium space through its annexation, as Belarus was previously a complex state through Lukashenko's presidency. So we can think of a different form of the Intermarium in the future.
Civilizational changes due to the coronavirus will also affect the form of cooperation within the Intermarium. Thinking about designing the Intermarium should be thinking about concrete projects for the future. The Three Seas Initiative is organized on infrastructure and energy projects. I think if we think about the new Intermarium, about the common future of our states in Central and Eastern Europe, we should also think about education, about the emergence of strong higher education institutions, universities that would operate around a joint program for lawyers, political scientists, experts who will one day work on the integration of the Intermarium countries with the EU and NATO.
The most important question: how to start such a political project? It seems that in this case the parliament is ideal, because it is not a government, it can afford more. Members of parliament can afford to come up with ideas that will seem revolutionary to some, seemingly far-reaching, attractive visions. No need to be afraid of visions that seem unrealistic. You can rely on parliamentarians from Poland, Ukraine and other countries to do this.
Such thinking, politics should begin with the first small seeds, those politicians who can afford to speak openly with opinion leaders, experts. And let's see how it grows. I have no doubt that there is one favorable climate for the Intermarium.
