Who is to lead Europe?

The French and Germans, of course.

Who else?

Gordon Brown is barely surviving as UK prime minister, and the Conservatives are as provincially Eurosceptic as ever. Europe simply cannot count on the British, at least for a while…

Silvio Berlusconi’s sexcapades and Spain’s dire economic state put them out of the running for a leadership role.

As for Poland, the country’s fixation on security in its immediate neighbourhood is incompatible with true European leadership.

But there are some issues to sort out between Paris and Berlin:

The fundamental question about how to deal with Russia remains divisive. France must not delude itself: Germany is not about to convert to nuclear energy to reduce its reliance on Russian energy. Yet Germany must realise that Russia’s negative evolution has consequences that Germans cannot escape.

A spectacular Franco-German security initiative after Germany’s election, accompanied by a joint message to the Kremlin, would also send a message to the rest of the EU, particularly to its Václav Klauses: “If you decide to paralyse the Union through stubborn ill-will, you will only end up excluding yourselves, rather than dictating Europe’s fate.”

I wonder what ‘spectacular’ initiative is in mind.

And how they might make sure that all those dreary provincial leaders in Warsaw and London and elsewhere who might be distrustful of it (but who will be expected to pay for it) will meekly ‘exclude themselves’.