LONDON -- Giving parties is fun, but it also poses risks -- chiefly that of offending those who are not asked.
This is what British Prime Minister Tony Blair found the other day while trying to rally European support for the antiterrorist coalition and American policy. He asked the “big nation” French and German leaders to a minisummit and then followed that up with a dinner party for the same two plus the Italian and Spanish prime ministers in his official residence at 10 Downing Street.
The Belgians, who currently hold the rotating presidency of the European Union, immediately demanded to be invited as well. So did the Dutch. So did Javier Solana, the so-called “high representative” of the European Union in foreign affairs. That still left out Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Greece and several other smaller nations -- an exclusion that spurred loud protests that the British were ganging up with the big boys to undermine the EU’s democratic spirit.
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