VW's Strike in Slovakia Exposes a European Divide

Slovakia is in many ways the poster child for East European integration into the European Union. But the strike taking place now at Volkswagen's Bratislava plant says a lot about how disunited Europe looks from the European Union's eastern edge. Eastern Europeans often feel their countries have turned into Western Europe's colonies, and that sense may be a more serious threat to the EU's unity than Brexit.

Unlike most of its neighbors, Slovakia adopted the euro and hasn't suffered for it, though many predicted it would. In 2010 through 2016, its economic output in constant prices grew an average of 2.9 percent a year. The impressive growth has been possible thanks to Slovakia's increasing specialization as the EU's car assembly hub.