BRUSSELS Many European politicians praise the Internet.

Many leading economists and policymakers are forecasting continued economic gloom.

Japanese policymakers and business leaders do not understand the concept of creative destruction. Too many industrial dinosaurs are kept on life support.

Japanese policymakers and business leaders do not understand the concept of creative destruction.

In short, European policymakers are in an impossible position.

European policymakers are becoming aware of the problem.

Increasingly, Europe s politicians regard excess liquidity and economic reform as substitutes for one another.

Every few weeks European ministers proclaim new initiatives concerning labor policy.

To be sure, European politicians are not blind to what is happening in Greece.

Policymakers, business leaders, academics and journalists refused to recognize the depth of their country's problems.

If you go back to the leading European and American newspapers on the year January 1, 1900 they were filled with optimism.

European politicians viewed Russia s recent parliamentary and presidential elections skeptically.

But they can succeed by displaying comparable wisdom and foresight.

In particular, Europe s politicians are balking at steps that would implicate taxpayers directly.

Many European politicians who have sought to see the situation on the ground have been barred in recent years.

European plans for a Common Foreign and Security Policy and for closer defense cooperation seemed brutally discredited.

As a result, policymakers should begin to consider direct policy interventions to accelerate social progress, with a particular focus on human development and gender inclusiveness.

Europe Agonistes

Europe u0027s Invisibles

If he fails, well, thank God one wasn t involved.

The leading regions have experienced rapid growth.

Newscasters blink once every second.

No matter what policy the Bush administration adopts, European reservations and doubts should be taken into account.

But European politicians, of right and left, believe that public expenditures are the engine of growth.

If European policymakers are serious about economic recovery, they should focus on consumption, not investment.

This process, called carbon capture and disposal, is being pursued by some of the world's leading engineers.

Many of the world s leading scientists signed, too.

Irish and EU politicians should take the lead in making these tough decisions, but the current leadership will not.

European politicians instead seem to have become increasingly committed to the notion that global warming is the world s most urgent problem.

Many European politicians would view a member state s repatriation of competences as a totally destructive precedent, and thus would oppose it resolutely.

Europe s national politicians routinely criticize the EU for its lack of democratic legitimacy, yet they bear part of the responsibility for it.

That may sound obvious, but abandoning price stability is exactly what some European politicians are advocating.

In the absence of a credible democratic left party, Czech center right politicians had the upper hand, and were relatively united, until 1997.

Europe s leaders know this.

Where are Europe u0027s Optimists?

Too European to Fail

Moreover, as confrontation with the US intensifies, Washington will probably act to forestall any trend toward the unification of EU foreign and defense policy. In the absence of such common policy, the EU and its leading members will remain in the second league of world class players for the foreseeable future.

In the absence of such common policy, the EU and its leading members will remain in the second league of world class players for the foreseeable future.

Rattled, leading politicians from all the parties met in Abuja, the capital, and promised to eschew violence and intimidation during the elections an encouraging sign that the political class is keen not to repeat the coup inciting mistakes of the past.

Beyond the opposition, numerous non political public initiatives have sprung up in the last several years to protest specific government policies leading inevitably to confrontation with the existing political order.

First, the world s leading climate scientists and most of the world s governments have brought climate science to the forefront of global policy debates.

Arab and Muslim leaders need to make this clear, be it in public pronouncements by politicians, lectures by teachers, or fatwas by leading clerics.

So far, Europe's politicians have resisted reform, and scarcely an opportunity went by that Wim Duisenberg didn't scold Europe's politicians for this failure.

All of the condemnation and shame expressed by European politicians following the Lampedusa tragedy has been, for the moment, no more than a mere declaration of intentions.

Europe craves the opposite mix more monetary flexibility, fiscal policies that reduce taxation and national debt, and a labor policy that makes Europe's labor markets more akin to America's.