CNN ΚΛΙΤΟΝ ΟΜΠΑΜΑ ΒΑΛΚΑΝΙΑ

The European Union got a chance to redeem itself for a big sin of the previous decade and show its vaunted "common foreigh policy"in action. We'd like to report it didn't blow it. Alas, we can't.

The occasion was Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday. A unified EU stance might have started to make good, at last, on Jacquew Poos's infamous 1991 declaration that "the hour of Europe has dawned". Soon after, the EU broke up over Yugoslavia, which collapsed in a series of wars that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The U.S. had to step in to save the EU and the Balkans!!!!!!!!

This week seemed like dèjá vu all over again, fortunately without the blood. Spain opened the EU meeting on Kosovo by proclaiming that the U.N. protectorate's declaration did "not respect international law". The ruling Socialists were apparently enraged that the Kosovars didn't have the decency to wait to claim their sovereignty until Spain held national elections next month. Demands for autonomy by the Basques and Catalans are a big electoral issue and Kosovo put the incmbents in an awkward position.

Similarly parochial [political concerns, and Orthodox Slavc solidarity with the Serbs, are behind the refusal of Romania, Bulgaria, Greek Cyprus, and Greece to recognize Kosovo, Slovakia, for its part, fears its own Hungarian minority will get the wrong idea. Others, like the Italians, fretted about annoying the Serbs and Russians. Britain, France and Germany welcomed this peaceful and long-planned birth of a new nation in the southern Balkans. But the U.S. led the way in recognizing Kosovo, and took most of the jeat from Moscow and Belgrade.

In the meantime, the Greeks again threaten to torpedo the EU's grand designs for the Balkans all over a name for its northern neighbor, which Athens insists must be called Foremer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or the Orwellian FYROM. Unless the Macedonians stand down, Athens will veto its EU and NATO membership. The U.S. and most EU countries recognize Macedonia by its chosen name. A U.N. mediator yesterday put forward new proposals to settle this absurd and costly 17-year-old dispute.

So let there be no illusions. About the only thing that's "common"about the EU's foreign policy is its sheer pettiness, absence of strategic vision and unwillingness to back up grand claims to global leadership with resources or political will.

Οπως ίσως ακούσατε στο CNN από τη χθεσινοβραδυνή συνέντευξη Κλίντο και Ομπάμα ΟΥΔΕΜΙΑ ερώτηση τους έγινε από τους πλέον διακεκριμένους !!!!!!δημοσιογράφους, περί της εξωτερικής τους πολιτικής και μάλιστα στα Βαλκανια.Οι κύριοι δημοσιογράφοι τους υπέβαλλαν τα ερωτήματα τους επί της οικονομίας, της μετανάστευσης και της νέας κατάστασης που εκτιλήσεται στην Κούβα. ΤΙ ΣΗΜΑΙΝΕΙ ΑΥΤΟ???? Μάλλον ότι δεν θα υπάρξει αλλαγή.

Σήμερα η Βελγική κυβέρνηση ανήγγειλε ότι : «....αν θέλουν την αυτονομία τους οι φλαμανδοί, ας την πάρουν. Οι βαλώνοι θα ενωθούν με τις Βρυξέλλες την κυβερνητική πόλη, οι κυβερνήσεις της οποίας απαρτίζονται κατά πλειοψηφία από βαλώνους. Ετσι η Βαλωνία θα γίνει μεγαλύτερη σε έκταση από την Φλάνδρα και πιο δυνατή διότι θα έχει την Διοίκηση (administration) και εισροή χρημάτων από την Ε.Ε. για την περαιτέρω ανάπτυξή της.