Europe’s First Think Tank! Errr….

Well, it finally happened, the endlessly optimistic Mark Leonard (with the support of über-democrat George Soros) got his wish and established the European Council on Foreign Relations (it can be found here: www.ecfr.eu and amusingly, here: www.onevoiceforeurope.eu). Unlike others, we have always basically found Leonard an interesting proposition (though cannot help but agree with this excellent review of his slightly reductive book Why Europe Will Run the 21^st Century). However, we have been rather baffled by the endless drive to remind us that this is truly Europe’s (and by Europe we mean the EU as an institution/entity/federation…well, you understand) first think tank. We always felt that those charming people at the EU-ISS, and CEPS (to name the two that immediately spring to mind – others (though this of course is optimistically predicated on the assumption that anyone is reading us) will undoubtedly be offended by their omission and we apologize in advance) might be slightly miffed by that. Maybe their multiple locations makes them truly European in some new way?

  

Still, they are here and that is that. Well, we must admit a certain irritation at the fact that they choose to publish everything in a rather aggressive capitalized style. I guess they are SHOUTING to get their point across – we have always thought Europe should talk more loudly, but to do it all the time would seem to turn us into lunatics (maybe this reflects the personalities in the buildings?). To be even cattier, we are not entirely sure that we are persuaded by the ruthlessly trendy retro-ish looking aspect that they have decided to adopt.

No matter, this is a big day, we suppose. They have assembled a mixture of known and unknown entities to people this institution (and we see that the enthusiastically pro-European Brits seem to dominate the staff roster). We look forward to seeing what they produce. We may even try to comment on some of their pages, so please keep your eyes open (though again, we return to our earlier optimism).