Among the institutional changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty, some have been more present in the media and public debate than others. Three months after the Treaty entered into force, we can still read at least a couple of articles a day about the President of the European Council, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and, of course, the External Action Service that is now being designed. But with all the attention given to these new actors, one of the old ones has been slightly forgotten. In fact,with all the confusion in the media, it took quite a while for people to learn that the rotating Presidency of the Council of Ministers will still exist and work pretty much as before, with the unofficially existing 18-months Trio now being `officialised' by the Treaty.

The European Commission is contradicting itself, NGOs have claimed, pointing out that a recently published social protection report goes against key priorities outlined in the bloc's long-term 'Europe 2020' strategy.

The Europe 2020 blueprint ignores the importance of ensuring social protection in exit strategies, despite the EU executive and member states calling for exactly that in a joint report published last week, European social NGOs have claimed.

European social affairs and employment ministers are meeting in Brussels today (8 March) to discuss the Europe 2020 strategy, which the Commission hopes will form the backbone of sustainable growth in Europe for the 2010-2020 period.

The EU's new top diplomat Catherine Ashton has only been in office for 100 days, but she is already running into stiff criticism. Her detractors claim she doesn't have enough dedication, stature or independence. But the EU's leaders chose her precisely because she lacked those qualities.

It was a week in which she was finally hoping to do everything right, for a change. She met with the new president of Ukraine on Monday and flew to Haiti the next day to visit earthquake victims. She had hardly recovered from jetlag after returning from the Caribbean before jetting to the Spanish city of Cordoba for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

And what did Catherine Ashton, 53, the EU's chief diplomat, come home to at the end of this busy week? More grumbling.

Trans-Atlantic security needs have changed fundamentally in the last two decades. The East-West confrontation has ended, and Moscow now shares many interests with NATO. It is time for the alliance to open its doors to Russia, say German defense experts Volker Rühe, Klaus Naumann, Frank Elbe and Ulrich Weisser.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has noted with concern that many of today's politicians have too little knowledge of history. He could well have added that those same politicians are also frighteningly deficient when it comes to understanding strategic and security issues. In Germany, there is no significant discussion about the future of NATO, its self-image, its strategy for the future and the question of how Russia can be included. Berlin is not showing any opinion leadership, nor is it spurring international debate. This has been a disappointment for other members of the alliance, who are asking themselves whether the Germans are afraid of the debate or are simply no longer capable of contributing to it in a forward-looking way.

Europe's security, though, remains a constant task, and new challenges require different responses than in the past. The Euro-Atlantic region needs peace and stability at home, but it also needs protection against external threats. Ultimately, the emergence of a multi-polar world requires finding a way to offset the political, economic and strategic dynamics of the large Asian powers.

There are only a few ways to make money in Barbate: collecting pine cones, catching squid or trading hashish. Only one of the above is really lucrative.

The grass trade is "like a party, and everyone in Barbate is enjoying it", said Antonio. Although he denied any part in the flourishing drug trade in the southern Spanish fishing town, he was willing to tell how much money can be made in trafficking hashish. "Everybody here knows that anyway," he said, sitting down in his office at the municipal sports complex where he does odd jobs at the weekend.

Antonio, who is referred to by anyone who knows him as 'El Feo' (the Ugly), sported a trimmed mullet and fake Armani sunglasses as he explained what happens when a smuggling boat from nearby Morocco lands in Barbate. "Several people are needed to safeguard the load," he said. "The price is determined based on the risk someone takes."

As a structure to keep a minority away from a majority, it has drawn parallels with an earlier wall between Roma and non-Roma in the Czech town of Usti nad Labem, and even with the Berlin Wall and Israel's separation barrier.

But what is new in Ostrovany is that the Roma now form the majority - exactly two-thirds of the population.

The French Navy has captured 35 suspected pirates in three days of operations off the coast of Somalia -- the biggest haul in the two years since EU naval ships started patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

In operations over the weekend the Nivose, a French frigate, seized four mother ships and six skiffs. In one raid on Sunday, French and EU forces used helicopters and fired warning shots to stop and capture a mother ship and two accompanying vessels.

The prisoners are expected to be flown to Kenya, which is already prosecuting about 100 pirates on behalf of Western nations with forces in the area.

The Roman Catholic church does not approve of untramelled globalisation so an international trade in communion wafers should not be threatening the livelihood of French convents. Yet it is. Nearly sixty contemplative houses in France are feeling their livelihoods threatened by falling demand for the wafers that the make. Not only is the number of Catholics in France falling, but their product is undercut by cheap imports from Poland, which come from a secular factory. Bad enough that the French were threatened by "The Polish plumber"; the Polish wafer is an even more serious attack on the tranquil heart of France.

A year from now the Nordic World Championships will take place on the legendary Holmenkollen. And for this event, the Norwegians built the world's most modern skijumping facility. But now there's only one topic in Norway: The scandal concerning the opening of the new arena.

 

With construction costs of about 220 million Euro the Holmenkollen is the most expensive skijumping facility and the public decided in an online poll that the first jump shall be made by Anette Sagen. Bjoern Einar Romoeren was second in the voting.

 

Romoeren is blamed

But on the evening before the official opening - originally some youth jumpers should have tested the inrun length for Sagen - Romoeren showed up at the hill, put his jumping suit on and made the first jump on the hill, that is a "national treasure" for the Norwegians. At that time Sagen was sitting on a plane returing home from the Continental Cup in Zao (JPN).

 

On the next day Sagen made the first official jump but at the point the situation was already messed up. 6 000 fans came to show their support for Sagen and Romoeren was considered the bad guy because he should have known that his decision to jump was wrong.

A 62-year-old Uighur living in Sweden as a political refugee since 1997 has been found guilty of spying for China on Uighur expatriates and sentenced to a year and four months in jail. <...>

From January 2008 until June 2009, [Swedish citizen Babur] Maihesuti had collected personal information about exiled Uighurs, including details on their health, travel and political involvement, and passed it on to Beijing, the court found.

He had given the information to a Chinese diplomat and a Chinese journalist who, on assignment from the Chinese intelligence service, carried out operations in Sweden for the Chinese state.

"The activity has taken place in secret through a special system of telephone calls, (and) was also deceptive since the man did not tell the Uighurs he was dealing with he was working for the Chinese state," the court said.

The court ruled that the espionage was especially serious since Maihesuti had infiltrated the World Uighur Congress and the information passed on "could cause significant damage to Uighurs in and outside China." ...