Europe’s desire to play the role of a great power might miss the opportunities that Turkey’s application to access to the EU is providing her with.

In Le Monde, Marion Van Renterghem notices that in the final straight, the Lisbon Treaty is not safe from a deadly fall.

A column in Le Monde, written by Laurence Boone and Raoul Salomon, complains about the lack of coordination at the European level during the crisis and warns against worrying divergences in managing the after-crisis, notably in matters regarding public funds.

In Coulisses de Bruxelles, UE, Jean Quatremer recapitulates the programme of the coming European year. Wishing you a Happy new European Year!

Icelandic foreign minister argues that Iceland’s request to access to the EU is the result of a long process as “Europe” has been the most debated topic in Iceland over the last decade. Also, the country has understood the difficulty in maintaining an independent currency in a globalised world.

The government of the new Prime Minister Boiko Borissov is consisting of new faces of forty-year-old men and women, who are supposed to be breaking with the former compromised political caste.

Russia does not recognize the mandate of the UN and OSCE assignments in Georgia, which would also like that Turkey and the United States take part in the assignments.

As Iceland is being part of the European Economic Area and has signed the Schengen agreements, the country is already fulfilling 22 out of 30 chapters of accession criteria according to the Commissioner for Enlargement, Oli Rehn. In order to avoid critics from candidate western Balkan countries, EU foreign ministers reminded that they were fully supportive of an EU perspective for the concerned countries. But France is opposed to any enlargement before a possible entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.

“Turkey does not want to become the biggest refugee camp in the world” said the Turkish minister for European Affairs, Egemen Bagis, as Turkey is facing steady pressures emanating from Greece and the EU according to which Turkey does not fight efficiently enough against illegal immigration.

French government is spending a lot of diplomatic energy to secure Michel Barnier as the EU commissioner for the single market in a possible future team led by Barroso.