EU selection

[mahnmut]

Glyn Ford, a former Labour MEP, told Al Jazeera that building a political presence in Europe was one of the challenges a new president would face.

"Europe is bigger than the United States, its richer than the United States, it gives more to the developing world than the United States by far. But we don’t actually have the political presence," he said. "Now how do you develop that political presence?"

Experts have said the president should be a technocrat who can provide unity and build consensus among the EU's main institutions - the council of nations for the 27 member states, the European Commission and the European parliament.

The EU president will be selected today out of the many candidates. That'll happen on a 3-hour lunch around a table hosting the most influential politicians of Europe. Typical.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Evidently they don't each geography in European schools. The part of the United States that seceded to form the former Confederacy alone is larger than Western Europe, and the total United States with all 50 states is again physically larger than Europe.

And something makes me doubt the developing world will be glad to have their former overlords wanting to revive colonialism in a new guise.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure the ignorance of one Irish MEP is symptomatic about the ignorance of all Europeans who are obviously not taught geography at school. (He could've meant that Europe as a continent is bigger than USA, but never mind). ;-)

As for bashing Europe, Kol has just provided a perfect ground for doing that where you could be joined by a much larger audience. Here, enjoy: http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/302397.html

[alphistia.livejournal.com]

It looks like a relative unknown will be the new EU "premier". I'm happy at least that it's not the odious Tony Blair, one of the most unctuous politicos on the whole planet. And on the subject of geography :-)I know they do teach it in European schools - I collect such textbooks and have several. The difference is that unlike in the US, most Europeans actually learn a bit of geography in their courses. More than once surveys have shown Americans to be extremely ignorant about geography - even of their OWN country...

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I said, only using sarcasm.