French President Emmanuel Macron opened the autumn political season last week by meeting four Central and Eastern European leaders, succeeding in drumming up support for his key political initiatives.

In Vienna, his face-to-face with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico elicited surprisingly pro-European responses.

Both countries are part of the so-called Visegrad Four, a group that was until recently seen as being Eurosceptic, and also comprising the ‘rogue’ member states Hungary and Poland.

But in recent days, Fico has made a U-turn, stating that his country wants to stay in the EU’s core.

And the Czech Republic, which unlike Slovakia does not have the euro, said it would seek an observer status with the eurozone. So far, the country has sought for years to delay its eligibility for the single currency area.

After that Macron went to Bucharest for a chat with Romanian leaders, and on to Varna, the ‘summer capital’ of Bulgaria, whose leaders were delighted to receive him.

This was the first visit by a French president since Bulgaria joined the EU ten years ago and is all the more important as Bulgaria takes the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU from 1 January.

Macron’s Eastern European tour was a success. His most visible goal was to win support for changing the Posted Workers Directive at an EU summit on 19-20 October , in contrast to the Commission’s original proposal which Macron says “creates unfair competition” in wealthier nations like France and Germany.

By and large, he reached his objective as no outright rejection was voiced.

But more importantly, Macron managed to rally the pro-EU leaders of Central and Eastern Europe behind him, in his push for a radical reform of the EU.

He also succeeded in avoiding a divided EU along the lines of ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Europe, which Donald Trump is trying to engineer. It’s something Moscow would savour too.

Two countries are still a problem: Hungary and Poland. Macron did not pay them a visit this time or meet their leaders.

Hungary is a special case because it doesn’t have big stakes in the reform of the Posted Workers Directive – relatively few Hungarian citizens have gone to work abroad.

The real thorn in the side remains Poland.

In Bulgaria, Macron said Poland is not the country to show Europe the way, and then underscored it by adding Poland had placed itself on the margins of Europe’s future history.

It may sound offensive for those in charge in Warsaw. But Macron is right. Today’s Poland has no right to teach others.

After all, under its present leadership, it has become the only EU country under the EU ‘Rule of law’ mechanism. Worse still: because of its controversial judicial reform, it’s on the verge of seeing the triggering of Article 7 procedure, known as ‘the nuclear option’, for serious violations of basic human rights and democracy .

Macron’s thinking seems to be in line with what we said in June: in the absence of new EU treaties, the best way to deal with rogue governments is to ignore them until someone else takes charge.

The only further advice we could offer Macron is not to speak of “Poland” but of “those in charge in Warsaw”. Poland is a great country and France has historically been its good friend. Possibly a better friend than its Visegrad allies.

Roundup

A second round of Brexit talks kicked off today, as EU officials hope for progress on key divorce items like the UK’s contribution to the EU’s budget, citizens’ rights and the Northern Irish border. UK negotiator David Davis urged the EU to be “imaginative and flexible” this week.

UK media suggestions that France and other EU nations could be willing to open talks on post-Brexit trade as early as October have been swiftly dismissed as not based in reality.

The US threatened to impose tariffs on Spanish olives, causing a cry out against protectionism, as the European Commission disputes the appropriateness of the American trade investigation.

Our interview with the CEO of multinational fertiliser company Yara highlights how precision farming harvests digital technologies to develop more resource-efficient agriculture.

There’s a plan afoot to mitigate Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement and it involves planting billions of trees.

EU states have turned down a proposal to extend telecom licences to a minimum of 25 years. The proposal had aimed to signal security to investors, but countries aren’t willing to give up their auctioning rights.

“Electrifying the economy” is the way forward in transport, according to the CEO of electricity giant Iberdrola. But Europe’s reliance on oil and the continuing digital divide stand in the way.

Bots create jobs: millenials are optimistic about the role of technology in the labour market, according to a new poll.

The EU continues to try and get down with the kids, as its embracing of this latest worldwide fad clearly shows.

Look out for…

The live press conference between EU Commission and UK chief negotiators Barnier and Davis begins at 5pm in the Berlaymont’s VIP corner. You can watch it here.

Views are the author’s.