After linking to Ron Suskind’s critique of the Bush administration’s faith based decision style, it is only appropriate to mention that Rocco Buttiglione, Silvio Berlusconi’s nominee as Italy’s European commissioner, is causing a similar debate on this side of the pond - one with possibly important cnostitutional repercussions.

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Looking pretty good.

Ohhhhhh, I can’t resist this. Anatole Kaletsky writing in the Times:
Turkey is likely to scupper the strongest argument in favour of ratifying the European constitution: the claim that voting rights among the EU member nations must be reformed to accommodate past and future enlargements. The fact is that, far from preparing the EU for the [...]

This should come as a shock, but somehow I am not exactly surprised. Mediterranean cooking evidently isn’t always as benign and healthy as it seems.
Greece was warned on Thursday that it could face legal action for grossly under-reporting its national deficit and debt figures but was told it would not be ejected from the 12-country [...]

That yes vote on the EU constitution gets to look more precarious by the day:
France’s ratification of the proposed European constitution will look more challenging than ever on Thursday night if Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister and a leading figure in the opposition Socialist party, uses a television interview to call on his supporters [...]

Barroso has announced who will get what portfolio in the new commission (they won’t take office until november)
EUobserver reports.
The top economic posts have gone to people who favor market liberalization, and Barroso signals he’ll proritize “economic reform.” This represents a break with the past. Previous commission’s were more completely non-partisanpolitical. The leftwing parties dissed [...]

As you may have heard by now, Portuguese prime minister Jos? Manuel Dur?o Barroso will be the new president of the European commission. He’s a compromise candidate, after Verhofstadt, Patten and like a dozen others were rejected. Some say that’s bad, diminishing his authority, but really the only of his predecessors that weren’t a [...]

How many members will the European Union have by, say, the year 2020?
With the latest round of enlargement not yet two months old, the exertions of the constitutional debate still straining the dedicated Europeanists, and prospective members largely a collection of the poor, ill-governed and recently-at-war, it would be reckless indeed to speculate about the [...]

It seems that Doug’s informant was correct as a deal has been made and the new EU Consitution has been agreed, while any decision on the next Commission President has been deferred for a few weeks. Bertie Ahern is saying that he hopes it will be resolved by the end of the Irish Presidency, though.
Chris [...]

A reasonably reliable source has given me some tips on outcomes expected from the current summit in Brussels:
* They will reach an agreement on the draft of the constitution. The European Parliament will have even more members, and the rules on qualified majorities will be sorted out.
* They will not agree on a successor to [...]