France: Villepin to stand for
president
The French
former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin announced this week that he will
stand for president in the 2012 election.
Villepin will only meet his long-time rival,
the current French President, Nicolas
Sarkozy , if the incumbent chooses to runs for re-election. Although recent opinion polls suggest
that Mr Villepin is likely to get only 1 or 2% of the vote, his candidacy will nevertheless
inconvenience the president by splitting the right-wing vote in the first round
of the election.
Despite
endeavours to present himself as a candidate above party politics, his new
political movement, Republique solidaire, is populated with members of
Sarkozy’s UMP.
Croatia: To join the EU in mid-2013
After
seven years of talks, Croatia has signed a treaty to enter the European Union in
mid-2013. Territorial disputes with Slovenia and
demands for the arrest of war crimes suspects rendered the membership bid long
and problematic.
Croatia will become the EU's second ex-Yugoslav
member after Slovenia. Serbia,
however, is unlikely to get official candidate status until March. While EU
leaders praised Serbia for democratic reforms, they require further evidence of
progress in relations with Kosovo before a final decision can be made on
ascension to the EU.
Norway: Better butter up its
neighbours
(Although
Norway is also not a member state, I’ve snuck this story in because it was just
too fun to leave out!)
Norway’s
butter reserves are alarmingly low, partly as the result of a "low-carb"
diet sweeping the Nordic nation which promotes a higher intake of fats. Sales have
soared in the last months, up 20 per cent in October then 30 per cent in
November.
In
addition to increased demand, a wet summer reduced the quality of animal feed
and cut milk output by 25 million litres.
Butter
is selling like gold dust on Norway's auction websites, with a 250-gram piece
starting at around $13, roughly four times its normal price.
In a
tokenistic and surely mocking gesture, the Danes have offered the Norwegians a
meagre 1,000 packets of butter.
By Sonia Jordan
