Blogs : 22nd September

Last but not least. Open Europe Blog, (en)
Georgia and Taiwan. Vitaliy, The 8th Circle (en)
A Few Words on Foreign Policy . Wallace Osborne, Blogactiv.eu (en)
Can the next US president heal the transatlantic rift? Tomas Valasek, Centre for European Reform
Oxbridge v government, round two. Certain Ideas of Europe (en)
Plundering the private purse. Richard, The EUReferendum (en)
User Expectations of Government start outside Government. en.europa-eu-audience (en)

Ukraine, Russia and the EU. Helen, The EUReferendum (en)
" ..A few thoughts on the subject over on BrugesGroupBlog. The EU is ready to resume negotiations with Russia about that partnership in October if troops move out of Georgia proper (something that still has not happened). Judging by Prime Minister Fillon's comments, the French Presidency will want to resume negotiations even if those troops stay as they have done so far."

The lame left? Douglas Muir, A Fistful of Euros (en)
" ... No matter what they call themselves—Social Democrats, Socialists or Labour—rarely have they simultaneously appeared so troubled. In Britain, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s popularity has hit rock bottom. Germany’s Social Democrats are a dwindling party, squeezed between conservatives in the center and populist extremists on the left. In France and Italy, telegenic new-style rightists have managed to reduce the left-wing opposition to tatters. Even Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the last unchallenged mainstream-left ruler of a major European power, looks increasingly besieged as the Spanish economic miracle crashes all around him…"

La gauche européenne va-t-elle disparaître ?
" ... L’apparition de partis d’extrême gauche – qui refusent toute alliance gouvernementale ou, s’ils l’acceptent, pratiquent une surenchère qui paralyse toute action — ne fait qu’empirer la situation de la gauche : en Allemagne, « Die Linke » va interdire pour longtemps le retour du SPD aux affaires ...

Curing Britain's Property Price Crash. Irony Too (en), 22nd Sept
" ... Britain, it is generally acknowledged, has the second gravest property price crunch in the world, yet unlike in the USA with the magic Mr Paulson, the UK government, oh so typically, seems to be doing nothing to address it ...
... Nobody yet knows how far UK property prices will plunge but it is essential to be aware that a fall of 20 per cent from peak levels requires a rising property market of 2 per cent above inflation for a period of twelve years before the original peak value is once again achieved ...

Careful what you…translate. Vitaliy, The 8th Circle (en)

" ... Recently, the European Union faced some rather embarrassing mistranslation issues. The first one, caught by Neeka, has to do with mistranslating Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement following the EU-Ukraine summit. Did Mr. Sarkozy say…
"This association agreement [to be signed in 2009] does not close any paths, nor does it open any paths." or "Be clear that this agreement shuts no door, and maybe it opens some doors."
To find out which major newspapers (The Times, Deutche Welle, The Irish Times, the Financial Times, etc.) butched the translation and which caught the error, see this dissecting post.
By the way, the original in French is this: “...cet accord d’association ne ferme aucune piste, que même il en ouvre…” ..."