The Avenue Louise is the most elegant shopping district in Brussels, but these days you are just as likely there to run into the leader of some embattled former Soviet republic as the bejewelled wife of a Belgian millionaire.

At the Conrad Hotel (Ave. Louise 71), where a duplex suite with a kingsize bed for a couple on a romantic getaway costs €1,865 a night, I had an enlightening conversation on Thursday morning with Lado Gurgenidze, the new US-educated prime minister of Georgia.

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Once again, Europeans are fuming over a US measure designed to combat the threat of global terrorism. This time round, it is the tightening of US immigration and customs rules that have sparked anger in Brussels and other European capitals. According to a recent bill that implements the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, European citizens that currently don’t require a visa to enter the US will have to notify US authorities a certain period of time before departure.

While tourists and business travellers will find this requirement annoying, to say the least, the much greater threat to the transatlantic economy is posed by a second new measure - namely the requirement that every single cargo container shipped or flown into the US must be screened before sent across the Atlantic.

Since the bill was signed into law by George W. Bush, the US Department of Homeland Security has been keen to play down the effects of the new measures. In particular, it stressed that - contrary to earlier reports - travellers would not have to register with the US authorities 48 hours before every departure, but only once every one or two years. On container screening, the department said it will work closely with the country’s trading partners to ensure the measure don’t damage global trade flows.

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US homeland security chief Michael Chertoff swept into Brussels to soothe European concerns about an anti-terror agreement that gives Washington information on airline travellers. To recap: some Europeans are fuming about an American requirement for airlines to supply the US with data (passport, credit card, seating information and more) on passengers flying to the country. The debate – often portrayed here as the US trampling on fundamental rights – rumbles on. Negotiators are trying to update the data-sharing deal and Chertoff gave well-oiled answers about why it was crucial to fight terrorism. But it was his comments on the roots of terrorism that caught my attention. First, he was asked about the differences in radicalisation in the EU and the US, then he moved onto some more general observations. (more…)

The last time Serbian and European leaders really got together, they seethed at each other. So why is the EU dusting off its plans to cuddle up to Belgrade? And why do I think it is a good idea?

I remember that last meeting in October, when, bunkered down in a conference centre in Luxembourg, Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia’s prime minister, proclaimed his country’s heartfelt desire to hang on to the province of Kosovo – whatever the wishes of the EU or US.

Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement Commissioner, said Serbia had done nowhere near enough to track down Gen Ratko Mladic, the man blamed for Europe’s worst massacre since the second world war – the killing of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.

The air was thick with recrimination. Rehn made clear that unless Serbia did much more on handing over Mladic, there was no chance that talks would resume on deepening Belgrade’s ties with Brussels,  negotiations supposed to open the way for Serbia to join the EU.

Now, however, Rehn is giving off much more positive signals, making clear that, if Serbia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday go well, the talks could pick up where they left off and make up for lost time.

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On a lightning visit to Berlin last year, I discovered that Germany is groaning with plans for its six month long presidency of the EU. One theme struck me in particular: Angela Merkel’s improbable ambition to bring hope to the Middle East. You might not believe it, but this is an issue where the German chancellor really thinks she can make a difference.

Like many other European states, Germany feels strongly that the US ought to do more with its international partners to broker a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

That’s why Merkel told the FT she wanted to revive the Quartet, the body made up of the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations that is supposed to work for Middle East peace.

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Just before Christmas, I went on a daytrip to Iraq. I was part of the press pack following Tony Blair around and, although the other journalists and I gave pretty short shrift to the prime minister’s whole Middle East trip, it was, in many ways, an illuminating experience.

For example, there was the sight of Blair’s top advisers donning helmets and body armour to visit a country that was supposedly liberated three and a half years ago. And there was the prime minister himself, seemingly tired and stressed on what could turn out to be his last official trip to Iraq, evidently relieved when his Hercules aircraft left Baghdad and Basra behind it and headed for Tel Aviv.

The trip also raised an intriguing possibility for the future of British and European foreign policy.

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