Here comes an astonishing admission from the Eurosceptics: the European Commission simply does what our national governments ask it to do!

We pro-Europeans have been making that point for a while, of course, but that doesn't make it any the less surprising when the rabidly anti-EU European Foundation confesses in a press release today (not yet available online):

"In the end, as with past trade rounds, successful completion of the Doha round is likely to require the close personal commitment of the heads of government of all the major countries. In the case of the EU, Stewart-Brown argues [in the European Foundation's journal], that will mean Chancellor Merkel and President Chirac. [Trade Commissioner] Mandelson, as it appeared at Hong Kong, is little more than a pawn in their hands."

Perhaps someone would be kind enough to remind the Foundation of that point next time they publish some politically-motivated diatribe or other about how the European Commission is always telling nation states what to do?