Normal life resumes

President Medvedev may have ignored the challenge of hope and change but the European Commission is busy ignoring what Putin's teddy bear is saying.

The EU's executive body, the European Commission, called on European states to unfreeze talks with Russia -- three months after the war in Georgia, and just as Moscow threatened to install new missiles on the Baltic Sea. Eastern member states want a harder line.

I bet they do. Those missiles will be pointing at Poland and the Baltic states.

Incidentally, could someone, please explain Der Spiegel that the Commission is not simply the EU's executive body, being the sole initiator and final arbiter of legislation as well. Anyone would think that the EU exercised division of powers á la Montesquieu.

The commission was anxious to portray resumed talks as a strategic advantage for Europe, not a gift to Russia. "This does not mean business as usual," said External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said, "because we cannot accept the status quo in Georgia."

And the dog ate the homework. What a good thing the common foreign policy will be if it is ever allowed to be formulated by the somewhat pluckier East Europeans.