Last night a Sydney youth was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in Jail in Sofia, Bulgaria. His name is Jock Palfreeman, a young man who lived a comfortable and secure life like many on Sydney's North Shore. In a search for adventure he set off for Europe and after sporadic attempts to join the British army he finds himself in the centre of a violent bashing in Sofia. An incident that would change his life forever, and call into question the Bulgarian justice system.

So the very unknown Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy, has been elected as EU President- taking up a position that could be instrumental in the future of the region and global international relations in general.

Only a day later, on the opposite and non-EU side of Europe, Russian and Ukrainian officials met, with Putin announcing that he would be easing gas supply terms to a neighbour that is crucial for Russia's European pipelines. 

Is it too cynical to think this isn't it a coincidence? 

Is it unreasonable to think that as Putin spins a tighter trade web with Former Soviet Republics that this could be his attempt to stand tall and unthreatened by a stronger EU?

The Adam Smith Institute blog reports that in order to meet the conditions for joining the single European currency, all citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must be made aware that the phrase 'spending a penny' is not to be used after 31st December 2009. From this date, the correct terminology will be: 'Euronating'.

Eurologists will be monitoring use of the abandoned phrase and perpetrators are likely to be pissed off by the proposed punishments. These include the infamous slapping on of a ‘P’ Notice and in extreme cases the use of Euroncological surgery to remove the phrase from the subject’s lexicon.

In the midst of a growing economic crisis, Ireland’s urban working class and struggling rural people have united to deliver a blow to Europe’s ruling elite. The defeat of the Lisbon Treaty in the Irish referendum has tossed out years of efforts by the European Union to come up with new, “streamlined” procedures, and to get the increasingly unitary EU an (unelected) president and foreign minister. The Treaty was itself a modest rewrite of the European Constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005...

The X factor in this result was the effect of the prevailing economic catastrophism: would voters take the conservative option of voting Yes to avoid the danger of deepening the crisis with political uncertainty? In the end it was the most at-risk sections of the population who delivered the most decisive No. The problem for the Treaty was that it was all too easy for voters to connect Ireland’s present economic woes to its role in Europe.

As unemployment leaps, it calls attention to all the east-European immigrants working here; as previously astronomic house prices collapse, the president of the European Central Bank announces a coming rise in interest rates; as farmers worry about their futures, the EU negotiates at the WTO to allow more South American beef into European markets; as fishermen despairing of high fuel prices stage protest blockades at key ports, they complain about EU-imposed fishing quotas that force them to dump tons of their catches.

A No vote does nothing to address any of these issues; indeed few of them even figured prominently in the campaign. But voting No was the means at hand to complain about them. [More]

The threat of military attack against Iran has continued to escalate as the European Union this week conceded to pressure from the U.S. to implement stricter sanctions against Iran for refusing to cease from enriching uranium for its nuclear program. Earlier this week, Israeli transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, "If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective. Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable."

The Office of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is reportedly in favor of military strikes against Iran, and President Bush has repeatedly described an attack as an "option" that he is keeping "on the table". Leading officials and military experts at the Pentagon, on the other hand, have reportedly been opposed to attacking Iran, and the State Department is said to favor a diplomatic approach...

Iran has repeatedly called on Washington to engage in discussions not only about its nuclear program, but on working towards a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, calls which have been rebuffed by the U.S., probably in no small part because any such talks would inevitably include a focus on Israel, the only nation in the region armed with nuclear weapons. [More]

From a minute after midnight last night, that political Cinderella the European Union added Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to its current 15 member states creating a homogenous multi-ethnic entity one third the size of the United States with passport-free travel for its peoples. Borders, those vestiges of an industrial and nationalistic past, simply fade away.

In Australia we are besotted by the borders between our 7 states and territories - but, mate, this isn't the real game. We need to champion the growth of the APEC into a more political Asian Union - or AU (there's gold in them thar hills).

Bring in India, create a true Asian community and the world is smaller still. And when it's really small ('Imagine' - John Lennon), we will live as one.