More seriously, what I had in mind is a substitute NATO made up of EU members - i.e. a formal institutionalized military alliance. Rhetoric matters too. In practical terms Merkel's policies haven't been that different from Schroeder's, but her tone has been. That didn't help much with the hardline PiS government, but it is paying dividends now that the less Russophobe and Germanophobe moderates are in power. Contrast that to the tensions between the equally moderate SLD government and Germany during the Schroeder years.
