THERE are many things to be said about the global climate change talks in Copenhagen. At the risk of seeming solipsistic, the thing that stands out here in Brussels is the almost-total absence of the European Union from the final, depressing bouts of deal-making. Pro-European politicians like David Miliband like to talk about the EU needing to get its act together, if it wants to be the third player in a G3 world, rather than a G2 world run by China and America. The sad truth of Copenhagen is that the EU could not even make it to the G20 level of influence. Judging by press accounts, the final non-deal deal that was signed was brokered by America and China after President Barack Obama seems to have all but gatecrashed a secret meeting between the prime ministers of China and India and the President of Brazil (after the Indians had told the Americans their man had already gone home). According to the New York Times: "Mr Obama then took the text to a group of European nations whose representatives grumbled but signed off." Note the phrase "group of European nations", not EU. Not all 27 members of the union signed the final accord, and the Europeans who counted at the meeting, though not very much, were the Germans, French and British.
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