So much going on in the world... it made me silent...

Dear readers,
I have been silent for a while, almost 9 months. This is a suicide for a blogger. In the world of twitter, on-line news, Arab spring and euro zone fighting for credibility this is an inexcusable absence. But what means 9 months in our lives?
I was struggling to stay on top of the news. What is really important? What should we concentrate our attention on?
I participate in the Brussels Forum in April where we had a meeting with Gordon Brown. He said that we are in the middle of a big change which touches on the way we produce and think about the world.
I read today that if the imbalance cannot continue forever it will not. So actually the big question of today is: when will US realize it cannot continue as it does and does the Chinese government really know what it is doing?
I witness the European institutions on the daily basis and still I think it is mostly concerned with the inward looking. What will be the next financial perspective 2013-2020 and these type of questions.
I have a big trust in Mr Van Rompuy and European Parliament on the whole but can these two 'institutions' carry the burden of ailing monetary union alone? I do not have any good answers.... So far the financial markets with their 'idees fixes' have won on Greece, Ireland and Portugal. So now the whole European game should be about stopping the disease and defending Spain credit standing.
One year has gone since Greece went 'boost'. What have we learnt since the? Are we addressing the causes or just put palliative pills to deter the shock therapy?
I think everything can be faced with a good leadership and a vision. I see it being constructed around Mr Van Rompuy. But I think that the turf wars of Brussels can still take a lot of energy and divert his attention. What are his powers? Chairing meetings and making speeches....
The real power is in the Commission and member state chancelleries.
Sarkozy is fighting for reelection and his mind is probably dominated by preparation for G8 and G20. I have been recently to Deauville - really nice place which looks probably the same as 100 years ago. But if Deauville is the place to make world decisions.... I doubt. It looks more like the old XX century decisions taken in Yalta or Teheran... has the world changed a bit?

With time and Fukushimas I am growing more assured by the Ecologic movement. Sure, as our neighbour Claude said recently there are also 'Khmer vert' - green Khmers in the world. But at least about the nuclear power the Green seem to put the right diagnosis- we cannot control it, the risk is too high.
So coming back to the French elections next year, I hope the Greens can make it to the second round :) Can Eva Joly make it?

And on my professional front the Deauville summit will discuss also the 'development accountability'. For me this is a very interesting concept. I think it is not about how much money have we committed but what have we achieved through this....

So this is in the nutshell a 'tour of the monde' as I see it. I hope I will be back to blogging. It is like a security valve: when you have too much intellectual input you need a place to put it out....
In the meantime I plan some travelling: Berlin, Kinshasa, Madrid. Is not Brussels central? From Gliwice to Brussels and around the world. :)

Let's go East... Middle East

Having spent around 10 years studying European integration, witnessing the Convention process and elections of Ms Ashton I grew a bit disenchanted. EU does not seem to be an independant entity with its own political forces. It is rather like a big Titanic which is being pushed from all sides (mostly by nationally thinking politicians) and thus far it has escaped the biggest ice bergs. It is more or less business as usual, money being spend, agriculture subsidized, some merger cases making the waves but not many new ideas... think about flexicurity...
The discussion about Turkey has not really started. Anyway Bosfor seems the upper limit of European ambitions and interests. But what I will claim in this blog is that this big ship is heading for a crash with one big iceberg- and this is precisely the issue of East... Middle East in fact.
Being Polish I should concentrate more on the intrinsic danger coming from our Russian imperialist friends. But I do not know why I grow more relaxed with Mr Putin embrace of the ex-empire.
What troubles me more and more is our Southern, East-Southern neighbours. And I mean is not any particular nation, state, but rather the whole puzzle surrounding Europe. The complex relations between the Palestinian political movements, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. The only big plan that the West seemed to have is failing right now. If we do not buy into the mercantilist explanations for the Iraq intervention (petrol) there is a political one, which seems more convincing to me. Since most of the suicide bombers on 11/9 were Saudis, the US understood it cannot sustain its regional politics on the basis of the Saudi regime. And in order to unfreeze the stuck situation, they attacked Saddam Hussein who was the apparent threat to the whole region. Sadam out of the playing field, the situation does not look better, despite claims of Tony Blair.

I remember also one cartoon in the Economist: the solution to the Middle East conflicts cannot go without resolving the Palestinian question. But since whenever you speak about Hamas, Hesbollah or PLO you cannot just avoid listing the interests of the neighbours. So a global solution is needed. A global regional solution starting from Egypt and finishing in Iran.

And in my view EU does not have such. It perceives the region as a mix of ex-colonial interests, servitude to Uncle Sam and integration of immigrants within the western societies. The furthest east Europeans dare to look in a strategic way is the bridge over Bosfor. Istamboul seems like a European Muslem town, Ankara is somewhere deep in Asia. Yet it is Ankara who seems play a role of negotiator and power broker in the region. Turkey is both European (legacy of Ataturk) and part of Middle East. So definitely Turkish politicians have a much better understanding of the Middle East then our European ex-colonies. France and UK never recovered after the Suez crisis.
So what is at stake in the whole dossier? Nobody seems to have found the golden solution. Well Germans supported Polish accession to the EU precisely in order to stabilise their neighbourhood. EU should do the same but not by building new spectacular Mediterainean Unions but rather producing a coherent, pragmatic vision which goes beyond the sense of guilt towards Israel and pity for the suffering Palestinians.
Mercosur and Asean are important political blocs, but EU should rather concentrate on stabilising its south-east flank. Once the Americans are out of oil and Iraq we shall have a terrible mess to sort out. Better start now. Ms Ashton, the floor is yours.
In the meantime, in case Europe needs another 20 years to make up its mind, let's start learning Arabic...