One step forward, two steps back? Finally Washington is engaged with Iran in direct talks. But Tehran doesn’t seem to have changed tactics. The NY Times reports:
At the end of a long day and evening of direct talks between American and Iranian officials, the two sides agreed to extend the discussions into a third day, in hopes of reaching an agreement.
Also no progress in Bosnia talks, according to the BBC.
Poland accepts US reassurance. A part of the new US missile shield will be hosted by Poland. Mariusz Handzlik, the chief foreign policy adviser to the Polish president — who meets with US Vice President Joe Biden today — told the NY Times:
Above all, this is about the long-term strategic cooperation between the U.S. and Poland.
Lukashenka ready for reform? Yes, says Reuters. It might be that the EU’s policy of engagement with Belarus — lifting the visa ban, including Belarus into the Eastern Partnership — is bearing fruits now. At least the Belarusian president lets himself be quoted with the following:
We must do it also not to be reproached yet again for usurping power, establishing a dictatorship here and holding elections here the way we please. This should not be the case. This is why I am a supporter of the most liberal election.
Now we’re waiting for the deeds.
With 27 voices: The EU fails to agree a common strategy for the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, the European Voice reports. Greenpeace says this is a “fiasco” that had “made the chance of failure in Copenhagen very real”.
The debate about the EU’s new diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (EEAS), continues. The EEAS is supposed to work under the future High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as his main tool. On Monday, the Constitutional Affairs Comittee has endorsed a report by Elmar Brok about the institutional aspects of the EEAS. At the same time, a Polish paper on the EEAS is circulating, the EU Observer reports. Both hold opposing views. The Parliament wants a strong service under the roof of the Commission and under supervision of the Parliament. Poland — probably expressing the view that is being held in many other capitals — meanwhile wants the EEAS to become an instrument of the member states:
Poland is of the opinion that in the process of creation of the EEAS, both in the planning and implementation phase, it is the member states which should play the key role.
The Lisbon treaty is extremly vague on the EEAS, leaving ample room for competing interpretation. (See my blog entry here.)
Today the Parliament will discuss the Brok report, you can watch it life at 15:00 here or here.
Read today on Global Europe: Staying the course. Germany’s position towards Turkey’s EU membership will not change, by Heinz Kramer, a Turkey expert from SWP, a think tank in Berlin.
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