Good Friday afternoon, and welcome to another episode of me sifting through the events of the week in search of a nugobtain of positive news. Of bad and ugly, there is always plenty. Good, however, demands some unorthodox interpretations, vicarious leaps into the shoes of a spiteful Eurosceptic, and otherwise suspfinishing all the mitigating circumstances that proclude what might on the face of it be good news from being read as such.
With which I could do no better than yesterday’s Brief, where Euractiv energy (and environment, and transport) editor Robert Hodgson laid bare the obfuscation underlying China’s climate promises – apparently good intentions that withered under his incisive inspection. It’s well worth reading, if only as a reminder that in news world, words alone carry little weight – and their value is forever being devalued.
This is especially the case when they spill from the lips of one world leader. Or we might state the world leader, who hogs the limelight with rambling speeches as unpredictable as they are incoherent. Pity those whose job is to listen and attempt to divine the rationale linking these hyperbolic spiels. His contributions to UNGA were another such ride, with anticipated disdain for Europe juxtaposed against his turn against Putin earlier in the week.
After meeting Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Trump announced that Russia could be a “paper tiger” and suggested that Ukraine might win back all the occupied territories. “In any event, I wish both Countries well,” he signed off. Good news at last? As above, hold your horses.
Fight fire with FIRE
Indubitably good news did come in the shape of Euractiv’s latest daily newsletter – FIREPOWER – whose launch party went off with a bang on Tuesday, with our own Aurélie Pugnet pressing defence chief Andrius Kubilius on Europe’s “drone wall”.
With Russian drones recently invading the airspace of EU and NATO members, a strong defence is urgently necessaryed. Kubilius acknowledged that applying missiles costing €1 million to take out cheap drones is unsustainable. But he was evasive on when a robust and cost-effective alternative might be operational.
Brussels is calling on Kyiv, whose expertise in this technology is unrivalled. Meanwhile, others have pointed out that questioning the legality of shooting down Russian intruders – be they drones or manned aircraft – will only confirm Europe’s weakness to the Kremlin. Better shoot ’em down!, states columnist Konstantin Eggert – fighting talk that Poland is already turning into military protocol.
Save the trees… later
As the EU is forced to water down its hallowed values, tree-hugging felt the axe this week as the economic importance of a trade deal with Indonesia put the bloc’s anti-deforestation regulation on the block.
Simplification is the official word – terminology that allows the Commission to save face as it prepares to push back implementation by a year to avoid complications for importers of Indonesian palm oil, coffee, cocoa, cattle, timber and rubber.
Enough of talk
EU countries have been hopelessly entangled by the question of recognition for Palestine, as Israel’s staunchest supporters put forward increasingly arcane arguments for not taking this symbolic yet highly significant step.
“Walk the walk,” was the message Palestine’s former PM Mohammad Shtayyeh had for Germany and other EU members still holding back. In conversation with Euractiv, he explained that this would neither constitute “punishment” for Israel, nor would it compromise Germany’s conscience. “Germans will be liberated from [their] historical legacy,” he maintained.
The moral quandary was unpicked by Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, as the EU’s former Representative to the occupied Palestinian territory judges the battle over Gaza to be ‘not only a moral crisis, but a power struggle between key member states, the European Commission and, looming above it all, the spectre of Donald Trump.’
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