It’s that time of year again, when Europeans pack up the kids and pets and embark on an annual vacation exodus — jamming highways that are no celebration of European unity. The highway headaches are rooted largely in European governments’ inability to craft a sensibly numbered, well-maintained and uniformly sign-posted highway grid.
Nato defence ministers were finalising plans on Thursday for the alliance’s first mission in Africa — helping to fly an extra 5 000 African peacekeepers to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan. They also considered boosting the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan ahead of September parliamentary elections there.
European Union governments have settled on a reform of rules to guarantee the stability of the euro, satisfying German and French demands that euro-zone nations be given more room to spend their way out of economic problems. National Budget deficits will still not be allowed to exceed 3% of gross domestic product.