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.
这是过去10年形成的一种仪式：28个国家的领导人在布鲁塞尔的欧洲理事会(European Council)所在地欧罗巴大厦(Europa building)外钻出豪华轿车；他们对着电视摄像机说些陈词滥调，然后和同僚们打招呼，有时还会行亲吻礼，或者用拳头相互碰一下。他们互相直呼其名：即使一个小国新上任的总理也必须鼓起勇气直呼德国总理“安格拉”(Angela)。然后是进行闭门会议，在深夜晚餐过后，他们达成妥协：比如，是让希腊获得纾困，还是允许英国推迟退欧。卢克•范米德拉尔(Luuk van Middelaar)在他论述欧盟的新书《Alarums & Excursions》中描述的这一幕，准确地反映了欧洲权力的现状。