It’s almost mid-January in Brussels and there has not been a single frost in the city. People are shedding their winter coats, trees are sprouting leaves; a rose made an appearance in my garden last week. It doesn’t take a climatalogical genius to realise something is going on, and at long last Europe’s policymakers seem to be taking it seriously.

As recently as last May, José Manuel Barroso did not even mention climate change as one of his top priorities; now it is the cornerstone of almost everything the European Commission does, and is at the heart of Wednesday’s announcement of a new EU energy policy.

(more…)

Remember the Azores "war summit" of 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war? Since that meeting on the windswept Atlantic islands the curse of Iraq has struck down most of its participants: George Bush and Tony Blair are heading out of office haunted by the unfolding disaster on the Euphrates, while Jose Maria Aznar is already gone.

But what about the fourth participant, the host Jose Manuel Barroso, the hitherto little-known Portuguese prime minister, lurking almost unnoticed on the edge of camera shot? He’s still going strong, and now as European Commission president he wants a favour returned by his old buddy, President Bush.

(more…)