Those of you who are subscribed to the Broker magazine will have already come across it, but this brief post is to highlight an article in the most recent edition by Otto Holman, reader in international relations and European integration studies at the University of Amsterdam.

In the article, Otto Holman reflects on the recent posts in this Blog on the future of Europe, and present his own analysis of the implications of the entering into force of Lisbon for the future of Europe as a global actor. Based on his analysis of recent events in 2009 and socio-economic projections for 2010, he argues that that the EU's soft power expectionations are "no longer in line with the EU's capability to uphold a degree of internal social cohesion".

On that basis, he doubts whether the Lisbon Treaty will strenghten the EU's external performance while the Union lacks "credible power, soft or otherwise, to the outside world".He thus reaches a conclusion that "In any case, the EU, coherent or not, will not be taking on a leading role due to its own internal crisis. The Lisbon Treaty will not change anything in this respect."

Folllowing this more intensive blogging period over the past three months, we will continue to monitor whether Holman's predictions will become a reality in the new year, and will occassionally add new blog posts in this space. We also invite you to share your own comments on his views and those by others in this blog. If you would like to contribute to this blog and share your own views, then please feel free to send me your proposed contribution at the following address: nk -at- ecdpm.org .