Blogs : 2nd September

Rallying ’Round. A Fistful of Euros (en)
Medvedev on Russia's interests. Certain Ideas of Europe (en)

Taking on a sacred institution. Certain Ideas of Europe (en)

"...Nicolas Sarkozy has called a special meeting on the Caucasus situation in a few days' time, which has made plenty of European officials grumpy as summer draws to a close, jolting them rudely back into action. Having spent part of the summer holidaying with diplomat friends, your correspondent is attuned to the fact that many are resigned to failure on Monday, which makes them even grumpier. One of them predicts a "toothless" EU stance if the group can agree at all..."

Sarkozy préfère l'Europe par la paix à l'Europe par l'épée. Jean Quatremer, Les Coulisses de Bruxelles (fr)

"...Quelques instants plus tard, je croise Nicolas Sarkozy dans un couloir. Il m’entraîne avec lui d’un geste pour m’expliquer, cette fois sans détour, à quel point il est attaché à la mise en place d’une défense européenne et qu’il espère arriver à ses fins d’ici la fin de la présidence française (He hope to create a European Defense single policy before the end of the French Presidency). Un diplomate français me précisera plus tard que la redéfinition d’une doctrine européenne de sécurité est en cours (a make over of the European Security Doctrine is on process) et qu’un premier jet sera prêt pour le conseil européen du mois d’octobre : “il est encore trop tôt pour que chacun ait intégré ce qui s’est passé. Cela va être le travail des mois à venir”."

The unholy trinity. Richard, The EU Referendum (en)

"...And, of course, the reason there is no coherence is that energy policy has – as we have pointed out before – been subordinated to the greenie agenda, dominated by the fantasy of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and seasoned by their abhorrence of nuclear power.

In this, we have allowed a situation to develop where we have an unholy trinity of three separate policies – energy, "environment" and foreign policy – which have become hopelessly intertwined, dereliction in the first two engendering impotence in the third..."