Charlemagne Isolation fever

摘要

One of the more pointless Brussels parlour games is to tot up the achievements of whichever country happens to hold the European Union's six-monthly revolving presidency. The score-sheet for Britain, the current Buggins, looks poor. The British say that the start of accession talks with Turkey on October 3rd was a great achievement, but the original deal was struck last December. Nobody else thinks Britain has done much (this week's Barcelona conference was a notable flop, with eight of the ten Mediterranean leaders invited staying away).