A few days ago I wrote a commentary titled, The Big Picture What Herb thinks 01-24-06. The commentary was about what I thought to be the significance of the EU's December, 2005, European Council conclusion. This is where the EU heads decided their next seven-year budget. Here's part of what I wrote:

What drew me to Bible prophecy was not the little details, it was the big picture. It was certain geo-political realties that I could see in real time, in the real world. It was the rebirth of Israel and the continuing revival of the old Roman Empire. That's why the December 2005 European Council conclusion is so fascinating. As you may know, the EU heads hold a summit at the end of each six-month rotating presidency -- each June and December. Among other things, at these summits they decide the priorities of the incoming presidency. And, at the top of their list of priorities is migration. In fact, the EU heads are so concerned about the problem of migration, they are wanting to adopt what they call a "Global Approach."

Yesterday we heard about how the Austrian EU presidency was trying to breathe new life into the EU Constitution by hosting The Sound of Europe Conference. The theme of the conference was music. The idea, evidently, was to teach the many voices of Europe how to sing together.

There were two keynote speakers at the conference. The first was French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin, who sang a sad song about what's wrong with the European project. The second speaker was the EU's Javier Solana, who's job was to sing about what could be done to make the sad song better.

That brings us to today's news. The Financial Times reported heavily on Dominique de Villepin's sad song. But, when it came to Javier Solana's song about making things better, the report said little. But, what was said, revealed much. It showed that Solana may have the same opinion that I expressed about the significance of the December, 2005, European Council conclusion. It seems Solana called this event "the tipping point." The Financial Times report ended by saying:

Mr de Villepin said Europe needed crises to move forward, but other speakers claimed the EU might have already turned the corner after a dire 2005. Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, said the December deal on a new seven-year EU budget was “the tipping point” Read it here.

Why would Solana perceive what happened at the December, 2005, European Council conclusion as a tipping point? Because, although other parts of the proposed budget suffered, Solana walked away with most of what he wanted. The EU heads agreed to his "Global Approach" to migration, and increased the external elements of the budget to accomplish the goal. So, I believe Solana's tipping point was, while others suffered, his piece of the EU's next seven-year budget got even bigger.

He took a sad song and made it better.