The meeting scheduled for this week between the EU and China became a casualty of the debt crisis – postponed because of the EU and eurozone's self-perpetuating emergency summits.
There was a sense of inevitability about the postponement – the kind of thing that tests the resilience of those protocol specialists who book the presidential suites, roll out the red carpets and rev up the limousines. The EU had started off with a gap of a week between a European Council scheduled for 17 October and an EU-China meeting in Tianjin, north-east China, on 26 October. But first the Council was moved to 23 October; then, when France and Germany fell out over the bail-out fund, an extra summit was added for 26 October. In politically incorrect terms, this was a form of Chinese water-torture for diary-planners, who have not yet found a replacement date.
Although Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, were detained in Brussels, and Karel De Gucht, the commissioner for trade, stayed at home, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, went to China anyway (24-26 October).
So too did Androulla Vassiliou, the European commissioner for education, culture, multilingualism and sport (24-27 October). Among her tasks was to open an EU film festival – 26 European films being screened in Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.
The titles include a Bulgarian film “Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakade” (The world is big and salvation lurks around the corner) and a Cypriot film “Apo thavma” (By miracle).
Entre Nous suspects that those are none-too-subtle pleas for China to help out with the eurozone debt crisis, a message that will be undermined by the Estonian contribution: “Kormoranid ehk nahkpükse ei pesta.” “Farts of fury” is its English title, though Chinese students of Estonian will know that a more direct translation is “cormorants do not wash their leather pants”.
