Week in Bloggingportal: A Week of Narratives

Are you sitting comfortably…?

 BY CC Abdulla Al Muhairi.

We all enjoy a good story, and there have been some big ones around Europe in the last week, from a new European narrative to the one about Germany being a Eurozone scapegoat.

The Assange story has unfolded dramatically this week, with the UK threatening to storm the Ecuadorian embassy. The Guardian urges patience, and Jon Worth argues that the UK stance shows a worrying lack of a global perspective.

The court judgment against and imprisonment of members of the punk protest band Pussy Riot in Russia was the other major international story of the week. We’ve had reaction to the news here, here, and here – and the EU’s High Representative has condemned the decision here.

It’s clear that there are many, many competing economic narratives on the Eurozone and the European economies. Whether the Eurozone needs to be retired, the ECB needs to change course, Monti being on his last chance to set Italy’s direction, the fights over a new Banking Union, or the lessons the EU could learn from the US on debt mutualisation, the debates are endless. Meanwhile Ireland looks less peripheral and France is challenging the narratives of The Economist and other media.

In Poland disappointment in the US is turning to Polish missile defence plans, and in Romania there may not be a simple narrative of an interfering Brussels. There’s also been coverage of the EU’s Energy Roadmap 2025 and an interview with Daniel Keohane on foreign and security policy in Europe.

And while “the Butler did it” is one narrative that may never change, for the Vatican it could raise some important questions…