After 10 bruising days for the political process, relief rather than celebration was the dominant public reaction to the breakthrough in the policing talks.

Agreement was eventually reached on important issues such as policing devolution and marching regulation, together with an exploration of new ways to make the administration function more smoothly.

...The lack of negotiating skills was starkly on show. This criticism applies mostly to the Democratic Unionists, headed by Peter Robinson who, although a seasoned politician, lacks direct negotiating experience. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are veterans of hundreds of meetings over many years with the British and Irish governments and others.

...On the unionist side, Mr Robinson will be defending the new agreement against hardline opponents. They are already claiming it is a craven sell-out and a victory for republicans.

For these and other reasons, the next few months are unlikely to provide a soothing respite from all the recent bruising. Instead, the likelihood is that more contusions lie ahead.

Still in the process of being finalised, the report's rapporteur - Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes - told EUobserver the document ultimately asks one simple question: Is it correct that parliament should sign off on its own accounts?

While the council of ministers, representing member states, also has to approve parliament's expenditure, a gentleman's agreement means scrutiny is kept to a bare minimum.

The upcoming document, set to form the basis for committee debate on parliament's 2008 expenditure over the coming weeks, will direct strong criticism towards the legislature's procurement procedure and raises concerns over recent calls to increase money for MEP assistants before a proper review is carried out.

The 31-pager will also raise the alarm over the substantial increase in the number of 'negotiated procedures' rather than open tender contracts awarded by parliament throughout 2008, criticising the administration's suggestion prior to the report's drafting that their number is simply "difficult to reduce further."

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured) told French radio Thursday he would consider running for the French presidency "in certain circumstances". A CSA poll suggested that the director of the IMF would defeat President Sarkozy by a margin of 52% to 48%.

An unusual controversy was at the heart of the annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) on Wednesday. The organisation's leader, Richard Prasquier, sought to explain why he had defended a man who had aimed a comment described by some as anti-Semitic at former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.

Georges Freche, a long-time president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France and a former member of the Socialist Party, caused a stir last month when he said one shouldn't vote for Fabius because "he didn't look Catholic". Since Fabius is of Jewish descent, the remark was deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.

Fabius was offended and the Socialist Party was shocked; but Freche revealed that he got a letter of support from none other than the leader of France's Jewish umbrella group.

Prasquier said Freche was not anti-Semitic, even though he considered his latest remark to be intolerable. Freche, who was expelled from the Socialist Party in 2007, is not new to allegations of racism. He once made waves by claiming there were too many black players in France's national football team.

Observers say Prasquier defended Freche because of his past support for Israel. Defending the Jewish state is one of the CRIF's main aims, as Prasquier repeated in his speech on Wednesday.

Chris Grayling, the man lined up by David Cameron to be the next home secretary, has received a stinging rebuke for manipulating official statistics. Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has warned him that the way he used figures for violent crime were "likely to mislead the public".

The humiliating slapdown adds to doubts about how credible the Conservatives are as a potential government, when they appear to be only three months away from taking office.

Earlier this week Mr Cameron was forced to "clarify" the extent to which an incoming Tory government would immediately cut public spending, admitting that there would not be "swingeing cuts".

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone caused controversy earlier this week with his views on the burka and whether it should be banned. Here, in his own words, the MP speaks in depth about his comments and why he felt he had to speak out.

"I have been concerned about the burka for some time, but it wasn't until I took my children to the play area at Wicksteed Park recently and saw a woman wearing a burka that it really came home to me how inappropriate and frankly offensive it was for people to wear this most ridiculous apparel in 21st century Britain.

"In my view, wearing the burka is not an acceptable form of dress and the banning of it should be seriously considered.

The US is threatening to stop working with Europe in the fight against terrorism after an EU parliamentary group rejected a proposed data-sharing agreement. A final EU vote is scheduled for next week. 

The United States has warned that it may stop working with EU institutions on terrorist data exchange if the European Parliament next week blocks a bilateral deal on the issue.

"If the European parliament overturns the agreement, I am unsure whether Washington agencies would again decide to address this issue at EU level," US ambassador to the EU William Kennard wrote in a letter sent to European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, according to news agency AFP.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called Buzek and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to voice Washington's concern over the issue.

In the wake of Barack Obama's decision to give the EU summit miss, José Luis Zapetero's EU presidency is languishing. If only his problems were confined to the European stage. With the Spanish economy on the rocks, the national press, many with knives out, remarks that the president is going through an unprecedented crisis.

"Total distrust", headlines ABC. On the morning after the Madrid stock exchange plunged 6%, the conservative daily points at Spain's "crisis of credibility", which puts prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a tricky position. This is all too clear with latest polls giving the conservative Partido Popular (PP) a four point advantage over the president's Socialist PSOE. ABC criticizes the socialist leader and his "chain of mistakes at Davos and Brussels". The "frivolous and distant" Zapatero is also accused of "having cosied down into an unreal world". Demanding "urgent decisions", ABC laments that that his "passivity and inefficiency have condemned Spain to years of obscurity".

El Mundo, however, applies some balm by soothingly reporting on Zapatero's 4 February visit to Washington, where Obama invited him to the interestingly monikered "National Prayer Breakfast". Zapatero succeeded "in making a speech based on universal ethical values, and connected with the auditorium". The daily is apparently relieved that "Zapatero has finished trying to look like Aznar [his conservative predecessor] in his effort to show how close he is to the president of the US".

President Nicolas Sarkozy was drawn into a corruption scandal on Thursday after French prosecutors opened an investigation into the suspected illegal funding of a presidential contender whose campaign he ran.

Mr Sarkozy was accused of being "at the heart" of a political scandal involving claims that 11 French submarine engineers were murdered in Karachi to punish France for failing to pay secret arms contract "commissions" to senior Pakistani officials.

Although the May 2002 bomb attack was blamed on al-Qaeda terrorists, investigating judges have said there would be a "cruel logic" if it was in fact ordered by disgruntled members of the Pakistani establishment.

The "problem" such as it is (and I think there is one) is that Europe to the extent it identifies itself as such is nursing fantasies of grandeur largely on the terms of other "big" civilizations - rather than on defining its aspirations in uniquely, identifiably European terms. A respectful (or as close as it's possible to approximate coming from someone with an American passport) suggestion: consider engaging less in "superpower"-themed yearning to meet or beat the Americans at their own game, and explicitly focus on what makes Europe Europe. That is to say: why should European societies want to play out the same adolescent boys' fantasies of conquest that America enjoys? This is irresponsibility and ugliness. Let's not desire more militarism and murder in the world. I believe there could and should be the ambition of being "the responsible adults" in world affairs - and sadly the field is wide open for dominating that sphere without competition. As far as a clear and unique prestigious pinnacle of excellence for Europe goes, this is something that really is a good - and therefore a political goal which genuinely has the potential to command consensus throughout the various member states, if advanced lucidly. Being comprehensively and wisely responsible is a much more solidly prestigious and robustly effective characteristic than some might carelessly insist - the sphere just needs opening up and overt, unapologetically forceful definition. Really it's easy for any society to indulge in the many bad elements of human nature and let anger and ugliness take over the aspirational agenda - par for the proverbial course. As best I understand, the point of European union is that it is possible to do the things that have never been done and should have been and still can. By the way, when the Americans insist they like action not talk, this is the best time to dismay them by giving them what they are asking for. If Europe calls that bluff and directly, clearly asks for Obama's partnership on a big and good new project, it will put them on the back foot and they will not be able to deliver. It wouldn't be difficult or dangerous in our time to rap America's knuckles in front of the entire world - at present, to reveal the "pragmatic President" to be not the pragmatist he says he is, but another kind of pragmatist entirely. If he doesn't want to show up at the table and prefers to send text messages to "Europe" from his airplane, it's no longer a low blow to cut him down to size and ask him to make good on his empty words. The Americans ask for commitment because they won't deliver that themselves - it's never happened in history (apart from arming the IDF unconditionally). But regardless of the exact tone to take, to keep a hawk's eye on the USA at this point is a costly mistake. The time is ripe to cut out the middleman and deal with the Chinese directly as far as the money goes. For the rest, if Europe stops worrying about what the world thinks of Europe, the world will think perfectly highly of Europe, and the Americans are no exception - indeed they've a unique weakness here which they can only guard against by posturing if other societies allow themselves needlessly to be unnerved - or to be impressed with expensive materiel that really can only kill so many millions of people. It's better not to use it anyway; why not want something else?

cheers!

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~