1. The “loud” Kaczyński. Even though Jaroslaw Kacyinski is not around anymore he left a legacy. He was the rather clumsy conservative nationalist that attacked the EU regularly with rather weird claims often related to Germany and WW II. However, his strategy was based on a anti-EU philosophy that is opposed to any further integration and the fear that “Brussels” would undermine his ‘moral revolution’. But his focus on rather symbolic issues (day against death penalty, social charter) as well as the historical references did not help to form sustainable alliances within the EU. His biggest victory was without doubt the EU summit in summer and his harsh negotiations tactics using the veto threat over and over again.

Result: delay of decision-making reform in the new Treaty of Lisbon plus annoyed EU partners, but in terms of sustainability he was not successful: The new Polish government is trying to reverse things.

2. Gordon Brown, the “quiet one”: Well, it is still not quite clear what he thinks about the EU but he is clearly trying to ignore it. Or is he somehow ashamed of the EU? Apparently he thinks that the EU is just another multilateral organisation which also explains why he has overloaded his chief European adviser with other responsibilities (apart from being the EU adviser he is also the head of international economic affairs and the G8 sherpa). Not surprisingly, Brown has not been to Brussels since he became PM. Apparently he watered down a important EU speech by his foreign minister and killed a new European defense initiative. In order to protest against the attendance of Mugabe, he refused to participate in the EU-Africa summit. Overall, the claims of the opposition in the UK seem to dominate his mindset and could be an explanation for his rather cowardly behavior. He is not even planning to sign the new treaty during the official ceremony in Lisbon … probably he is afraid of seeing a photo of him (+ intimidating heading) in the Sun signing the treaty…

Result: not too much….yet. Overall, Gordon Brown seems ignorant, indecisive, in a way unpredictable but for sure without any vision for the future of the EU. At least he avoided a referendum on the new EU treaty in the UK even though that could also be Blair’s merit. Everything else Brown did regarding the EU surely weakened his position in the UK and in Europe.

3. Nicolas Sarkozy, the “hyperactive” one . He seems to follow a subtle approach with occasional outbursts. The French president manages to portrait himself as a big reformer and a pragmatic realist who is in favor of an effective EU. Considering that he has been in office for only a few months, the list of EU initiatives is already quite long, most of his ideas are not well thought through and usually disappear after a few days: He (or other governmental officials) attacked the ECB and the Euro and demanded more political influence. He proposed the creation of a wise men group to debate the future borders of Europe (or how to keep Turkey outside). At every EU summit he managed to change some terminology but without any legal implications (first the ‘undistorted competition’ clause, now the Turkey “membership”). Sarkozy also seems to like foreign policy but does not care about any joint EU strategy: he invited Gaddafi to Paris, he congratulated Putin after the Duma elections, he surprised everyone with the idea of a Mediterranean union (as usual, nobody knows the details). He (and his ex-wife) also took the credit for the release of the nurses from a prison in Libya despite the deal that the EU had already negotiated. Probably I forgot half of his plans already….Anyway, so far he gets what he wants. The question is whether he also gets it when big decisions need to be made.

Result: symbolic changes in EU terminology, a downgraded wise men group, and his European counterparts still hope that he calms down and learns to play the diplomatic game.

Since Jarsolaw Kaczyński is out of government and Brown and Sarkozy have only been in power for a few month the question is whether we can expect any far reaching EU reforms from them. Will other leaders be strong enough to convince them in the future to make some important decisions? Or to put it more bluntly: Who do you think will be more successful in blocking EU decisions in the future?

I just started deleting blog spam….it is incredible what kind of spam you get these days! It used to be only the obvious things about different medications and various operations, as well as dating opportunities…but now they started making compliments:

• informative post, keep it up.
• dude cool site i like it very much.
• revolutionary. breathtaking. awesome post dude.
• Excellent forum with fantastic references and reading…. well done indeed…
• great site, nice design.
• nice choice of colors.

and my favorite:

• your blog is so important. you are the new media

That should give me indeed enough motivation to go on with my blogging

In case you just returned from your holidays in a remote area without newspapers and Internet connection, you might be interested in what happened during the summer. Here is the ultimate (but incomplete) list of important things you missed:

1. Early elections in Poland! What does this mean for the new EU treaty?

2. European Parliament elections in Romania!

3. Still no government in Belgium! Even summer was cancelled in Brussels this year.

4. The IGC is on the way, Gordon Brown needs strong nerves; and just to make sure: Britain has not lost control of its foreign policy: part 1 and part 2

5. George W. Bush lost Karl Rove and Tony Snow.

6. President Sarkozy is back!! Sarkozy in the US!! A new Iraq strategy?? A deal with Gaddafi!! Cecilia Sarkozy saves Bulgarian hostages (on her own!!)!! Hyperactive president!!

7. Georgia and the mysterious missile; Russia proposes own IMF candidate

8. Germany: Two years of Angie and Italian Mafia in Germany.

9. EU news: EU wants to break up energy giants; The EU and Kosovo

10. Media news: BBC dropped from Russia’s FM waveband; wordpress.com is blocked in Turkey! wordpress.com is still blocked…

11. George Tabori and Ingmar Bergman

In the euroblogosphere two (among many others I have not yet discovered) very interesting new blogs appeared: Brussels Comment and The European Parliament (that wants to find out what Europe has ever done for us).

Bad news for the German speaking blogosphere: The best political blog has decided to call it a day! Good bye Kosmoblog! We will miss you!

First, the Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski used weird historic justifications for his negotiations at the EU summit last week:

We are only demanding one thing, that we get back what was taken from us. (…) If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would today be looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million.

Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin also discovered the benefits of relativism in order to justify his political agenda:

Concerning some problematic pages in our history — yes, they exist, as they do in the histories of all states. We have less than some countries. And ours are not as terrible as those of some others. (…) Yes, some pages in our history were horrible: We can think of the events beginning in 1937, and we should not forget them. But it wasn’t better in other countries — in fact, it was far more horrible.

Recently it became clear that Putin wants to use history and social science in a very ‘soviet way’. In order to reflect the apparent new strengh of Russia he wants to rewrite history to establish a new “national-patriotic ideology”. For a more detailled analysis read Pavel Felgenhauer article in the Eurasia Daily Monitor:

Putin told the teachers: “Many school books are written by people who work to get foreign grants. They dance to the polka that others have paid for. You understand? These books, regrettably, get into schools and universities.” Putin demanded new history textbooks that “make our citizens, especially the young, proud of their country” and reiterated “no one must be allowed to impose the feeling of guilt on us.”

Putin specifically noted that the history of World War II and Russia’s history after 1991 are wrongly interpreted and must be rewritten. Today Stalin has again been rehabilitated as a leader who made mistakes, but still secured victory over Nazi Germany. The 1990s — a decade when Russia was a freer state than at anytime before or since — today is demonized. The pro-Kremlin youth movement Molodaya Gvardia has announced it will be organizing marches in Yekaterinburg and other cities in support of Putin and against the regime’s critics under the slogan, “No return to the 1990s”

Putin’s personal paranoia and anti-Americanism seem to be growing and are increasingly dominating external and internal Russian politics.