The heads of state of France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg met yesterday in Brussels to launch a new European defense initiative for a multinational force to flesh out the European Union’s foreign and security policies. Presidents Chirac and Schröder and Prime Ministers Verhofstadt and Juncker took pains to emphasize that they were not acting against NATO nor against that alliance’s senior partner, the United States.

Of course, besides Luxembourg, it is true that these were the European countries in the forefront of opposition to America and its “coalition of the willing” as they undertook their assault on Iraq. And many do intrepret this as an anti-NATO gesture – the Times of London‘s foreign editor Bronwen Maddox speaks of a “direct hit on Nato” and “payback time” for these four countries. What do the countries involved have to say for themselves? (more…)

A slow day – the situation in Iraq is cooling down, while arguments over a new “constitution” for the European Union promise to heat up soon – so what caught my eye on a survey through today’s Czech papers was the article “Klaus on Communism”, written by Czech President (and former professor) Václav Klaus in today’s on-line Lidové noviny. (more…)

It comes perhaps a bit too late – a reminder to the German public of Germany’s past great-power involvement in the Persian Gulf region would have been useful in the diplomatic wrangles preceding the War in Iraq – but the Süddeutsche Zeitung recently had a entertaining article about project for the Berlin-to-Basra “Baghdad Railway” (in German only). I guess they had to be true to the anniversary aspect: it was one hundred years ago, on 13 April 1903, that the Bagdadeisenbahngesellschaft (i.e. the business company set up to build it) was established at a lavish ceremony in Constantinople attended by Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was more than just a planned railway; even unbuilt, it carried tons of geopolitical implications for relations between Germany on the one hand and Russia and Great Britain, in particular, on the other. Then World War I intervened, and it never was finished.

Now it’s time to start to consider the Franco-American split through the eyes of European nations which did not share France’s pre-war view as to the advisability of an attack on Iraq. Let’s first try Hungary, supposedly a member of “New Europe” and among the countries in effect told to “shut up” by French President Jacques Chirac in the wake of signing a letter of support for the pre-war US stance against Iraq. (more…)

A quick note for those of you who picked up my reference to the recent report in the New York Times that, as a sign of his current displeasure with France, President Bush would spend his nights at a hotel just over the border in Switzerland when he attends the G8 summit in France at the beginning of June. Now the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad writes that Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer, reacting to that NYT report, has stated that the President will certainly stay overnight in France. (more…)

In the run-up to the War in Iraq Germany joined Russia and France in what the Economist has termed the salon des refusés in opposition to the US hard line. Now, as yesterday’s entry showed, a deep split between the US and France has arisen on lifting economic sanctions and the legal basis for proceeding with Iraq’s reconstruction generally, while Germany has downplayed its differences with the Bush administration. What is the German judgment on the Franco-American tiff? (more…)

Pardon me if I do a few things here that I’ll generally try to avoid, namely 1) Go off-topic (these days I’m supposed to be discussing the Franco-American split and reactions to it in various national presses), and 2) Pass along pointers which are of relevance only to a sub-set of EuroSavant’s audience, in this case those who can read German. (For those who don’t, no need to read on . . .) I know, EuroSavant is supposed to be the wunder-guide to the European press for those who only read English, but I was off surfing in search of 1) and ran up against something else. (more…)

It came on US publicly-funded television – on PBS’ Charlie Rose show – and from the highest-level Bush administration official charged with diplomacy generally and with keeping relations civil with our allies in particular. When asked whether it was intended that France suffer consequences for its obstructionist stance in the run-up to the War in Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell bluntly replied “Yes,” and then “We’ll have to look at all aspects of our relations with France in the light of that.” (more…)

Talk about a media “Iraq Withdrawal Syndrome”: The Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad yesterday topped its front page with an article about how the Dutch Parliament (the Tweede Kamer) now finds the establishment of a central registration office of vital importance for the tracking of the various underground cables, waterpipes, and other conduits winding, snaking, and tangling their way underneath Dutch cities. (more…)

Yesterday, in a surprise move, the French ambassador to the UN proposed a suspension of most UN sanctions in place against Iraq. It would be nice to survey the French daily papers on the Net to get their take on what was behind this démarche, but as it occurred late in the afternoon, French local time, that was apparently too late for inclusion in the editions of the following day, today. I’ll look at this tomorrow – but it’s strange that these same newspapers are perfectly able to report on the results of last night’s Champions League quarter-finals, which were known much later than the French UN ambassador’s announcement.

The Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz claims to see “signs of Iraq withdrawal syndrome” among the American media. How does this play on the other side of the Atlantic – say, in France? (more…)

The War in Iraq may be over, but the trans-Atlantic “War of Boycotts” carries on. On the one hand there is the boycotts organized for European consumers against American companies, by groups such as Consumers Against War and the Global Boycott for Peace. (more…)

Sorry, this has nothing to do with Athens, but just in case you were wondering . . . Remember last April when a small private plan flew into the Pirelli building in Milan, and people naturally tied it to the infamous events in New York City of September 11, 2001, and to terrorism generally? Well, according to the mainstream Danish newspaper Politiken, you can rest easy: investigators have reported to Reuters that pilot Luigi Fasulo’s up-close-and-personal encounter with that building’s 32nd floor was simply an accident. They didn’t even judge it a suicide, as Fasulo’s son had maintained. Now, you might further recall that, even before that, some kid just learning to fly had flown an airplane into a building in what I recall was Tampa, Florida. I still haven’t seen any final report explaining that incident – in the Danish press, or anywhere else.

Today I’m on enforced exile from my reporting and commentary upon parochial Netherlands concerns. Still, not all the important things that are happening have to do with Iraq. An important case in point is the EU Athens summit, at which the fifteen current EU member-states and all ten candidate states yesterday signed the Accession Treaty. (Recall that only three of those states – Malta, Slovenia, and Hungary, in that order – have yet held the national referenda authorizing actually joining the EU in a year’s time. And Cyprus, due to its special circumstances, will hold no referendum at all.) (more…)

My amazement (expressed below in my previous entry) at the eighteen-year sentence given to the murderer of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is an admittedly American point-of-view – but surely within the Netherlands there must be some dissension as well? (more…)

Sorry, folks, today it’s time to return to my home turf, the Netherlands. Yesterday the confessed murderer of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was sentenced to a mere 18 years in prison, of which he could end up serving little more than half. This for perpetrating last May the Netherlands’ first political murder since William the Silent was assassinated at his home in Delft in 1584, at the height of the struggle for independence from the Spanish empire. (more…)

Away from events around the Persian Gulf, for now, for just as coalition forces inexorably advance across Iraq, so too does the European Union’s expansion process proceed towards its anticipated destination of adding 10 new members sometime around May, 2004. After the populations of Malta and Slovenia had previously given their assent to EU membership for their countries (sorry, I don’t cover them), this past Saturday it was the turn of Hungary. (more…)

Which phrases has the War in Iraq added to those which will resonate down through history? “Shock and awe,” surely, for one. (more…)

I’m continuing with my tour of the press from the “axis of weasels” (or, as Jay Leno would now have it, the “axis of envy”), i.e. those of our NATO allies who didn’t think the direct solution to “regime change” in Iraq was such a good idea. Today let’s look at France. (more…)

Yesterday (9 April 2003) apparently was, as The New York Times’ William Safire (registration required) put it, “V-I Day” – “Victory in Iraq Day.” So how did yesterday’s scenes of Iraqi civilian jubilation and statue-toppling go down in the press of our NATO allies who showed themselves rather reluctant to get involved in the program of Iraqi “regime change”? For today, a few observations from German sources: (more…)

It’s a Saturday, and American troops are camped south of Baghdad, at the airport. Down south, British troops continue to besiege Basra. By this point, the BBC World Service has discontinued its continuous war coverage in order to broadcast Saturday Sportsworld. And that’s a good thing, too; after a week’s break for Euro 2004 national team qualification, there’s a full schedule of English football matches scheduled for today and tomorrow. Just today, Manchester United win 4-0 over Liverpool to go even at the top of the Premiership standings with Arsenal, who draw 1-1 at Aston Villa.

But in the Dutch papers today, it’s all about epidemics. (more…)

In the German Tagespiegel Malte Lehming offers an interesting commentary (“Jubel will gelernt sein” or “Rejoicing needs to be learned”) on why American expectations to be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi population were disappointed. (more…)

What’s going on in the Netherlands these days? How about only a caretaker government in power, or more precisely, the old government still hanging on, without much authority to take any sort of major initiatives – and all this more than two months after the last general election? (more…)