The paper clip

Is Syria serious?

EP President Pöttering returns from a changing Middle East, but will the changes stick?

Bosnia's long goodbye

Sheltered from the pressures that customarily threaten private companies, public institutions rarely go out of business. Self-perpetuation tends to triumph over under-performance. But an even stranger form of artificial immortality is currently on display in the western Balkans. The Office of the High Representative (OHR), the international body set up explicitly as a temporary measure in 1995 to oversee peace efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, remains in operation precisely because of under-performance.

VAT bid flickers on energy-saving bulbs

The UK's last-minute bid to win value-added tax (VAT) concessions for eco-friendly goods achieved no more than a vague promise that the idea would be explored by the European Commission.

Lisbon Agenda endorsement

EU leaders approved the second three-year cycle of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs.

Afghan mission on target

According to Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, the EU's police training mission in Afghanistan was the subject of the most substantive discussion during the foreign ministers' dinner on Thursday evening.