Germany has ended its six-month rotating presidency of the European Union and handed over power to Portugal for the remainder of the year. The symbolic transfer took place in Berlin between German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Portuguese counterpart, Luis Amado. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner extended his country's warm thanks to Germany for its performance at the helm of the EU during the past half-year. During its presidency, Germany got the EU to agree to a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emission by 2020 and prepared the groundwork for a new treaty to overhaul the 27-nation bloc.
Filipe and Ricardo back in POWER!!!
4 commentaires:
While it's happening all that in Berlin I am in Venice celebrating my sister's graduation: 110/110 cum laude!!
L.S.,
The German presidency really was surprisingly successful. Normally the big member states don't get this much done while they're holding the presidency, because the others don't like to be bossed around. That's why we have such marvels of negotiating skill as the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam. Now it is up to our good old mr. President to fill those shoes...
P.S.
It's finally finished!
L.S.,
And just something I ran into that perfectly sums up what I learned in Brussels. A quote by Otto von Bismarck:
"Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts."
or, in English:
"The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night".
Enregistrer un commentaire