The EU still thinks Turkey has further to go before formal accession negotiations can start, but even those member states least friendly to the Turks have been making conciliatory noises: on October 10th, the foreign minister of Greece, Turkey's traditional adversary, said he saw no reason why the EU should not set a date for accession talks with Turkey at its December summit in Copenhagen.

ECONOMIST: Growing and slowing | The

Lobbyists can provide plenty of emotive and colourful reasons why the WTO should not pen a set of rules.

BBC: Investment puzzle for WTO

Europe's new Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard recently published a paper that set out the arguments why the EU should commit itself to a unilateral cut of 30% by 2020.

BBC: EU 'half way to 2020 emissions target'