I don't know a news report that ever shocked me more. Reuters is reporting High Representative Javier Solana told reporters that Brussels was in control of the European Union, not Rome (Read about it here)
(http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11206392.htm).

I couldn't believe what I was reading. You see, what Solana was actually saying was he was the man in charge of things, not the EU's president Silvio Berlusconi.

As I thought about the implication of Solana's words, my mind returned to a recent encounter Solana had with Berlusconi. Berlusconi was in one of his goofy moods. When it came time for Berlusconi to introduce the EU's High Representative, Berlusconi looked at Solana and quipped something like, "You're not so high. In fact, you're as small as I am."

I wondered what Berlusconi meant -- if his remarks were really something more than just an attempt at humor. You see, there is a power struggle going on between the EU's institutions, and between the member states. And Berlusconi, head of a member state, had also just joked the same way about his arch rival EU Commission president Romano Prodi. Now he was doing the same thing to Solana who headed the EU Council. 

Although Solana wouldn't have shown it, he probably felt very insulted by Berlusconi's suggestion that he wasn't so high. It was as if Berlusconi was reminding both Prodi and Solana that the member states were still in charge of the EU. And, I believe Solana would have clearly seen it as a put-down of his authority as High Representative.

Back to that shocking Reuters report. I think Solana may now have set the matter straight between himself and Berlusconi. Like I said before, Solana was actually saying he -- the High Representative -- was the man in charge of things in the EU, not Berlusconi the EU president. And, so no one misunderstood what he meant, Solana restated his message by saying, "The official message is the message given by me, by the European Union."

Perhaps now people will believe Constance Cumbey's and my warnings that a new power center has been created in the EU with the office of High Representative -- a dangerously undemocratic power center that overshadows the presidency. And, like we've been reporting, this power center was created by implementing the 10-nation Western European Union's Assembly Recommendation 666.

Stay tuned!