It must have been Amateur Diplomat Night

EUvian “we’re going to take over the world” types ask themselves why China isn’t taking them seriously. Simple: it’s because Europe isn’t just increasingly irrelevant, it’s combining its collective irrelevancy into a logjam of highly bureaucratic and self important irrelevancy:

Some analysts doubt whether China sees the EU as an important player on the world stage despite Europe's diplomatic charm offensive.

"The EU-China strategic partnership is a partnership in name only. On many of the big issues that we have been observing in the last couple of years - climate change, financial regulation, nuclear proliferation, the Iran crisis - China has not treated the EU as a key strategic partner," Mathieu Duchatel, an analyst at the Asia Centre in France's Sciences Po university, told EUobserver.

"The EU has not been able to transform its economic relations with China into any political leverage," he added. "There are very few countries which can influence China. The only country that has succeeded in recent years is the US."

It’s to be noted by the lack of awareness that it is evident in a transcript of a leaked take from those fabled Copenhagen ”please pretend that we matter” summit.

Angela Merkel expressed her frustration at India's representative who refused to commit to precise overall CO2 emission reduction figures. "Then you don't want anything legally binding!" she said, only to be countered by the Indian side: "Why do you make presumptions? That is not fair!"

When she presented Europe's demand to have a commitment for a global reduction of 50 percent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, China's negotiator intervened abruptly and said: "Thank you for all your proposals. We've already said we cannot accept the long-term goal of 50 percent."

At that point, French President Nicolas Sarkozy jumped in. "With all due respect and friendship for China," he said, the West had already committed itself to an 80 percent reduction by the mid-century mark. "And China, who will soon be the biggest economy in the world, now tells the world 'these engagements are for you, not for us.' This is unacceptable. One has to react to this hypocrisy," he scoffed.

One can only wonder where this selfish rejection of slavish fealty comes from:

Because these countries are starting at a much lower per capita level of emissions, this would mean that the amount of carbon emissions allowed would ironically be higher for developed countries than for the third world. The rich world would be permitted two to five times higher per capita emissions than developing countries.

Actually, it’s really not that hard to figure out where they get it.

May Day protests turn violent as Greeks turn ire on EU, IMF

Not hard at all. Everything should be free in this life, right?

Separately on Saturday, riot police in the German city of Hamburg broke up a march of a round a thousand young people mounted in solidarity with Greek demonstrators after the protesters attacked police units with bottles and fireworks.