Here’s a ritual that has emerged over the past decade. Leaders of 28 countries pull up in limos outside the imaginatively named Europa building in Brussels, where the European Council is meeting. They speak platitudes to the TV cameras, then greet their colleagues, sometimes with a kiss or a fist bump. They are on first-name terms: even the rookie prime minister of a mini-state must find the courage to call the German chancellor “Angela”. Then, behind closed doors, over late-night dinner, they work out a compromise: whether Greece gets a bailout, say, or Britain is allowed to delay Brexit. This scene — described by Luuk van Middelaar in his new book on the EU, Alarums & Excursions— is what power in today’s Europe looks like.
這是過去10年形成的一種儀式：28個國家的領(lǐng)導人在布魯塞爾的歐洲理事會(European Council)所在地歐羅巴大廈(Europa building)外鉆出豪華轎車；他們對著電視攝像機說些陳詞濫調(diào)，然后和同僚們打招呼，有時還會行親吻禮，或者用拳頭相互碰一下。他們互相直呼其名：即使一個小國新上任的總理也必須鼓起勇氣直呼德國總理“安格拉”(Angela)。然后是進行閉門會議，在深夜晚餐過后，他們達成妥協(xié)：比如，是讓希臘獲得紓困，還是允許英國推遲退歐。盧克?范米德拉爾(Luuk van Middelaar)在他論述歐盟的新書《Alarums & Excursions》中描述的這一幕，準確地反映了歐洲權(quán)力的現(xiàn)狀。