UK Edition
From the moment the United Kingdom signalled its intention to leave, the European Union has been fixated on keeping its remaining members united behind a common approach to Brexit.
Without a shared position, they would be left to pursue their individual interests during the negotiations, allowing the UK to play them off against each other. And so Brussels chiefs have tried to avoid any prospect of the British being able to divide the EU27 and conquer.
Donald Tusk warned EU leaders as they prepared to move talks onto the next phase last month that "again our unity will be key", judging it a "sine qua non of an orderly" negotiation. While it desperately tries to keep calm and carry on appearing united over Brexit, the bloc is tearing itself apart over another issue: immigration.
The EU's way of handling the migration crisis, by compelling member states to accept quotas of refugees, has been highly divisive. The European Council president indicated last month that he was prepared to scrap the "ineffective" scheme, but he was criticised by Greece for his "aimless, ill-timed and pointless" comments.
Germany had little time for those countries – Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic – who responded positively. “We need solidarity not just in regulating and steering migration,” Angela Merkel said, warning her fellow leaders against "selective solidarity".
The EU's ongoing Article 7 row with Poland, a process which could end with it being censured by fellow EU member states and even stripped of its voting rights, might have led Chancellor Merkel and her fellow federalists to hope that they had sidelined sceptics to migrant quotas. But Poland has friends. And it is getting the eurosceptic band together.
Mateusz Morawiecki used his first trip as the new Polish prime minister to visit Viktor Orban in Budapest. The Hungarian leader made clear that the pair would fight their corner over immigration. "Central Europe, now that it has stood on its own feet, is successful and plays a stabilizing role in Europe, and thus we want to have suitable weight in debates over the future of Europe,” he said.
The Polish premier argued that immigration was "getting even hotter" as an issue, claiming that the EU is "going in our direction". Mr Orban pointed to Austria as evidence of this, where the centre-right Sebastian Kurz has come to power with the help of the far-right. "The Austrians who reject immigration elected a government that also does not want immigration," he said. "This will be the case everywhere in Europe and I believe it is only a matter of time."
That prediction might seem overly bold, but pro-EU figures are jittery about the spread of anti-immigration sentiment. Jean-Claude Juncker gave Austria's new leader to Brussels a cagey welcome in Brussels, expressing "reasonable confidence" that he would lead a "pro-European" (code for 'pro-EU') government. "We will judge the Austrian government on its deeds," he concluded.
Tony Blair, who has been weighing into the fray yet again, told European reporters that "the anxieties of the British people that led to Brexit are not confined to Britain" and that a failure to address them could see populism thrive across the continent.
The EU prides itself on how united it can look over Brexit, but the mutinous sentiment among central and eastern European members over its handling of migration shows how frail that unity can be.
The EU prizes its unity on Brexit, but the migrant crisis is tearing it apart