but I think the most handicapping aspect is the lack of coordination of foreign policies. It just requires the decision to do it, and it works, as the Iraqi and Iran examples show in a stark contrast.

On the military side, Europe is at least working on its biggest handicaps - its unability to transport troops on its own (via the Airbus A400 military transport programme), and its planning capacity. Vith Galileo, it will be able to offer a more "neutral" instrument to various parties around the world in what is becoming a vital service - global positioning.

It has - rightly in my view - decided to focus on peacekeeping and similar tasks only (the so called Petersberg tasks), but it should use more effectively, i.e. by speaking in one voice, the big carrots it has: financial help, trade agreements, and various forms of association agreements.

Europe now has a lot of legitimacy when it manages to overcome (no easy tasks) its various national egoistical and parochial policies.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes