Quickthink

Qt held off commenting on the decision making process to fill the new positions that will “lead” the European Union —  a “president” and “foreign minister”. Why? Qt does not believe that the key member states in the EU (aside from the UK) actually want leadership of this sort from European institutions at this stage. And sure enough, this comment from NYT captures “the flavor of the thing” (a phrase used by Cary Grant in the excellent movie Charade). Here is the key comment

But in their moves on Thursday, the national leaders seemed to move away from naming any widely known figure who could take the limelight away from the national leaders of European powers like Germany and France. (emphasis added)

Let us be clear. For all of the high minded baloney about forging a new European identity, Europe is less an ideology than a  tenuous power sharing arrangement. In that respect,  it bears some similarity to the US power sharing arrangement before the Civil War.  Welcome to a more legalistic version of the bad old days.

FOLLOW - This quote from the NYT report on the election caught my eye

“It is quite astounding,” said Olivier Ferrand, president of Terra Nova, a center-left research institute in France. “It is jaw-dropping. It is the end of ambition for the E.U. — really disappointing.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.