The EU Stress

Outside the hotel where the European Union foreign ministers stayed in the Slovenian lakeside resort of Bled for their semiannual brainstorming session, a poster advertised an exhibition of "Naïve Art."

It might have been a metaphor for the EU's well-meaning but often largely declaratory foreign policy and the way it is formulated and implemented.

"When something blows up in the world, the Americans get together and ask 'What are we going to do?' " said a British diplomat who has held senior posts in Washington and Brussels. "The Europeans get together and ask 'What are we going to say?' " The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity.

IHT says > Inside Europe: EU still stresses talk rather than action