Predicting the future? Once more, the European Council's conclusions are too long and too descriptive, and only time will tell us what real significance they hold. It is difficult to grasp this significance unless one casts one's mind back to the situation in Europe just a few months ago when: - there was no European policy foreseen for energy; the Lisbon Strategy was bogged down in scepticism and discouragement; the new financial perspectives, the essential instrument for any future...