I've said this before: The politics in the European Union are strange.

The EU is a strange beast to begin with -- it has fifteen rotating heads. This is because it has fifteen different sized, one-headed creatures who take turns every six months being its leader. This naturally leads to problems. Every time a new head takes over, the EU beast changes course and the poor thing can't seem to arrive anywhere.

In May 2004 it will get worse for the beast. At that time it will absorb ten more one-headed creatures into its body. And, if things remain as they are, the beast will have twenty-five rotating heads instead of fifteen.

The EU beast decided it had to do something about its rotating head problem. And, it had to do it before the ten new heads where absorbed and while it still had only fifteen to contend with. So, the beast established a Convention on the Future of Europe where a new way of sharing power could be found that would be acceptable to all its heads and still  allow the beast to go in one direction for a time longer than just six months.

Wanting to change things, the EU beast made Valéry Giscard d’Estaing -- a man who wants to create a more permanent presidency in the Council -- the  president of the Convention. Now here's where things get even stranger. Giscard has a turtle with a dragon's head sitting on his desk. He says he's sending a message that he won't allow his Convention to be rushed.

But, Giscard's plans for changing the beast's rotating heads has run into a problem. Romano Prodi, president of the Commission, is fighting to keep the beast's six-month rotating heads just the way they are. And, to let Giscard know that he didn't mind waiting for as long as necessary to get his way, the plan Prodi delivered to Giscard's Convention Prodi named Penelope. If you recall, in Homer's Odyssey Penelope waited twenty years for her husband to return form the Trojan war.

If all this weren't strange enough, it's getting stranger again. Evidently, Giscard has become so frustrated by Prodi's waiting game that Giscard has challenged Prodi to a public debate (Read about it here).

In other words: The turtle is challenging Penelope!