A summer of violence is exposing Europe’s foreign policy weaknesses
Source: GlobalPost
August 28, 2014 00:31
LISBON, Portugal — European Union leaders have met 162 times since the bloc first began holding regular summits back in 1975, but this Saturday's gathering will be their first-ever during the month of August.
The EU's presidents and prime ministers are breaking their previously sacrosanct vacation month amid a summer of violence that has seen Russia foment bloody unrest in Ukraine; Islamist gangs sow terror from Nigeria to Iraq; and the deadliest upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in a decade.
Officially, however, a response to the arc of instability stretching around the EU's eastern and southern flanks won't be on the summit agenda.
Instead, the 28 national leaders meeting at the bloc's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, are supposed to spend their few hours together resolving a spat over which of their nominees should be appointed to top EU jobs coming up for grabs in autumn.
There's no doubt the unprecedented array of security threats will force their way into the talks, but the summit's lightweight schedule underscores what many see as Europe's dangerous disconnect from the instability surrounding it.
Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/140827/summer-violence-exposing-europe-s-foreign-policy-weaknesses
HA! Those silly Europeans! Ignoring the problems that are right in front of them!
We, on the other h---waitaminute.