E-Force One glides into the Gare du Midi, Brussels. The band strikes up buongiorno il duce and Prodi emerges from the presidential train, glowing from his triumph at the G3 summit in Bruges.
"Prod off!" read the headline in this morning's Sun: "Prodi tells Bush where he can put his B52s."
This is the new Europe which, three years into the 21st century, has found its feet as a superpower. European armies are sorting out trouble-spots from Belarus to Burundi. The Americans are nowhere. Coca-Cola, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, McDonnell Douglas and the Sixth Fleet are in retreat. Peugeot-Citroën, Olivetti, Matra, Arbed, Deutsche Telekom and the Fourth Belgian Foot are on the march. The likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citibank took a bath in Latin America, while WestLB, Crédit Lyonnais and ScotWest now dominate the global banking scene.
Europe's national governments are fighting for subsidies from the European Commission, which controls taxation. Prodi's unelected administration of commissioners call the shots. The European Council, whose twice-yearly meetings used to have eurocrats running around like headless chickens, is now a headless chicken itself.