Pengrad Group

The Pengrad Group, Pengrad Four or P4 is a cultural and political alliance of four Western Union member states - Acadia, Duck Island, the Emperorlands and the United Provinces. It is an alliance of four nations that seek to further their relations and organize themselves better and back each other on Western and international matters. They are strong supporters of the Western Union and they have united to support each other in changing and reforming the Western Union. They are also closely aligned and cooperate with the Delphi Pact, which Acadia is a member of, and seek to bring them closer to the Western Union.

The Pengrad Group was founded on 16 September 2018 by the aforementioned nations by treaty in Pengrad, the capital city of the state of Penland in the United Provinces. A logo has immediately been introduced, with dots depicting the locations of the capital cities of the four member nations. Pengrad Group immediately began cooperating on various matters, both within the Western Union and on the international stage, and have enhanced their cooperation as members of the United Antarctic Nations. The member states of the Pengrad Group are each others' number one trading partners within the Western Union.

Background
Founding the Pengrad Group is something that has been mulled since the Emperor Crisis from May 2018 to August 2018 and has been discussed between nations that believed the Western Union reaction was too slow and were fearful that such a war could occur again and the Western Union would be divided about what to do with it. Four nations recognized they have incredibly similar world views - those nations being Acadia, Duck Island, the Emperorlands and the United Provinces. Brant Esser proposed at the 2018 Pontilex Western Union Summit that a small alliance be forged between Acadia, Duck Island, the Emperorlands and the United Provinces with the goal of pushing their interests inside the Western Union or acting on their own should the Western Union reject their ideas.

Duck Island and the Emperorlands immediately agreed, but the United Provinces, as one of the leading members of the Western Union, was skeptical. Nevertheless, after a few days of talks, it agreed to join the three in founding an alliance. It was established on 16 September 2018 by treaty in the city of Pengrad in the UP state of Penland.

The Western Union and other members of it had no comments on the developments, although the Western Union said it would 'help some members of our fragile union get closer together'. Tropicalis and Margate, however, had some concerns that the Pengrad Group would isolate the four nations from the rest of the Union, and so Tropicalis and Margate started mulling forming their own alliance, but disagreements between them abandoned their plans.

On the first Pengrad Group summit on 16 September 2018, the day the group was founded, UP investment into Acadian and Duck Island railway networks was discussed, as well as the potential creation of an independent oil pipeline between the Pengrad Group members, with the goal of eventually extending it to the rest of the Western Union. Nothing was officially decided and exactly that is what was written in the joint communiqué.

Economy
The United Provinces has the strongest economy of the Pengrad Group members and the rest of the members have rather small and not entirely developed economies. The United Provinces invests into the other three countries with the aim of getting them economically stronger and even with themselves and the rest of the Western Union.

Politics
The Pengrad Group has summits every few months or every year where new decisions are made and current issues are resolved.

Criticism
Initially, many across the Western Union saw the founding of the group as a betrayal of the Union, the four nations showing their true colors and isolating themselves to a more exclusive group. It also concerned those who saw it as an obvious attempt by 1/3 of the Union to control Western Union politics or acting on their own and ignoring the WU if the other members don't agree with them. This was an issue for Frederick Mueller in particular, who displayed the most skepticism among the WU member states’ leaders. However, the Pengrad Group assured Mueller and other concerned politicians from non-Pengrad countries that it is merely a collaboration group among the four countries, instead of a conspiracy that seeks to dominate the WU.

Trivia

 * This alliance is based on the real-life Visegrád Group, an alliance of four European Union member states - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
 * Some call this organization the "Scrub Club".