UN world record for "meaningless dithering" faces serious challenge from EU-nuchs

You're quite right. The EU just isn't capable of organising itself properly. We need a civil war to sort us out.

What's this "we" stuff? You're part of the Anglosphere now!

There is one very fine English fellow named Blair who presently occupies 10 Downing Street. Did another great one (of literary fame) live in your neighborhood at one time?

It seems that now that they've realized that they themselves can also become victims of their silly law, Belgian politicians are rethinking this whole "war crimes" thing:

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Foreign Minister Louis Michel on Friday became the first Belgian politician to be accused under the law. A small opposition group lodged a complaint concerning arms sales to Nepal.

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A leading Belgian politician has proposed abolishing his country's war crimes law which has soured relations with the United States after complaints against U.S. President George W. Bush and other prominent Americans.



Former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene made the proposal late Friday following repeated U.S. demands that the 1993 law be repealed.



``I think our ambitions are higher than our possibilities and that can jeopardize the role we have to play as European capital,'' Dehaene told the Canvas television network.



``It's a bit crazy to think we could be the conscience of the world,'' he added.

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http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=B21379BF-D302-4DB2-A840-55874C2FAE1D

All very interesting - but what's in it for me - I don't agree with a lot of what my "elected" UK Government is doing let alone giving the non-elected political failures who have arrived in the EU parliament as a result of not being elected to a proper job!.
I'm one of the few who can say they voted against "remaining a part of the Union" we weren't given the chance of voting to join Edward Heath signed the paper and then asked the question. I fail to see how giving the control to faceless beurocrats can benefit any country - England has failed to do anything significant (apart from beating Australia today!) with it's own English Civil Service and Government and I fail to see how a French or German (after all that's it!) politician could change the views in the UK.

"A European, a European and a European walk into a pub..."- Most essentialist article EVER!!!

I didn't know whether to put this here or in the PC thread in CI, but I figured it was safe here since it doesn't mention the Poles...

From Blair's address to the American Congress:

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And I believe any alliance must start with America and Europe. If Europe and America are together, the others will work with us. If we split, the rest will play around, play us off, and nothing but mischief will be the result of it.

You may think after recent disagreements it can't be done. But the debate in Europe is open. Iraq showed that when, never forget, many European nations supported our action. And it shows it still when those that didn't agreed [to] Resolution 1483 in the United Nations for Iraq's reconstruction. Today, German soldiers lead in Afghanistan. French soldiers lead in the Congo, where they stand between peace and a return to genocide. So we should not minimize the differences, but we should not let them confound us either.

You know, people ask me, after the past months--when, let's say, things were a trifle strained in Europe--"Why do you persist in wanting Britain at the center of Europe?" And I say, "Well, maybe if the U.K. were a group of islands 20 miles off Manhattan, I might feel differently. But actually, we're 20 miles off Calais and joined by a tunnel." We are part of Europe, and we want to be. But we also want to be part of changing Europe.

Europe has one potential for weakness. For reasons that are obvious--we spent roughly a thousand years killing each other in large numbers--the political culture of Europe is, inevitably, rightly based on compromise. Compromise is a fine thing, except when based on an illusion, and I don't believe you can compromise with this new form of terrorism.

But Europe has the strength. It is a formidable political achievement. Think of the past and think of the unity today. Think of it preparing to reach out even to Turkey, a nation of vastly different culture, tradition, religion, and welcome it in. But my real point is this: Now Europe is at a point of transformation.

Next year 10 new countries will join. Romania and Bulgaria will follow. Why will these new European members transform Europe? Because their scars are recent, their memories strong, their relationship with freedom still one of passion, not comfortable familiarity. They believe in the trans-Atlantic alliance. They support economic reform. They want a Europe of nations, not a superstate. They are our allies, and they are yours. So don't give up on Europe; work with it.

To be a serious partner, Europe must take on and defeat the anti-Americanism that sometimes passes for its political discourse. And what America must do is show that this is a partnership built on persuasion, not command. Then the other great nations of our world, and the small, will gather around in one place, not many, and our understanding of this threat will become theirs.
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Full speech.

EU ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3398525

Will wonders never cease.