BBC News
May 23, 2012
"At the very end of our dinner I propose we discuss recent developments in the eurozone."
So wrote Herman Van Rompuy in the last paragraph of a long and detailed letter of invitation spelling out the agenda for tonight's informal Euro summit. There's been much ribaldry about Van Rompuy's missive: as if it embodies the very lack of focus, the bureaucratism and awareness-free bubble in which the elite of Europe are trapped.
I read it differently. Van Rompuy had just sat through a G8 summit at which it was clear German intransigence - on both the short and long-term issues that are collapsing the euro - had been demonstrated, isolated but not overcome. This in a room containing Barack Obama, Yevgeny Medvedev and David Cameron. In the polls that followed, the wielder of German intransigence, Angela Merkel, scored her highest ever approval rating with German voters.
What this means - and I think Van Rompuy was making a public signal in his derided letter - is that there is nothing the Euro leaders can do.
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