European Union

I've been catching up on the last week's news today and am pretty excited for the new developments within the EU. The European Council met in Lisbon late last week and finalized the draft of the Reform Treaty which is remarkably similar to the failed EU Constitution from 2005. It will introduce some much needed reforms to the governance and structure of the EU. It's especially important considering the much greater number of member states (now at 27 but only 15 when the Constitution was proposed in 2004).

The other good proposal is of the "Blue Card" to allow easier immigration of highly-skilled migrant workers from outside of the EU to come into any EU member state to live and work. This is also needed by the EU to support current living and social welfare standards (particularly in the older, Western members) and to continue to support the EU's ability to compete in fields where China and India are rapidly gaining ground. (Of course, the US should also work on increasing the numbers of highly-skilled and educated workers... but that's another story. Meanwhile, good job EU!)