Every unhappy family is, as Tolstoy said, unhappy in its own way. The same goes for rows within the European Union. And, as with any extended family, you need to know your history to understand why minor rows turn into nasty fights. Behind each stand-off lies years of accrued grudges and slights.rnRight now the air is filled with talk of divisions between longstanding eu members and more recent arrivals from the ex-communist block. There is both less and more to this fighting rhetoric than at first appears. As the economic crisis deepens, the European ship is "rocking", and "they're going to start throwing the weaker passengers overboard," Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, thundered recently. Mr Tusk is so concerned about solidarity that he has invited eight other ex-communist countries to a pre-summit meeting on March ist, hours before all 27 eu heads of government assemble in Brussels.rnCertainly, east-west divisions yawn wide right now. Ask east European ministers what the summit on March 1st is for, and they talk of the need to defend single-market rules, open labour markets and competition. Many still seethe over suggestions by Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, that state aid for French carmakers should depend on a pledge to keep j obs in France.
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