The congestion at Keleti Station is just one of Europe’s latest blunders in the immigration crisis—a crisis that, although unprecedented, is not insurmountable. European leaders must focus on three action points: revising the Dublin Regulation, creating a fair and binding distribution of migrants, and enacting a Europe-wide public education campaign highlighting the necessity of this cooperation.

According to some analysts, improving Russia's image abroad has barely been the primary goal of an information campaign. Vasily Gatov, a Russian media researcher based in Boston, suggests that instead of promoting a positive image of Russia abroad, the actual goal of RT is to implement an "armed response" in the West and the Russian liberal media. Their goal is to create anti-Russian hype in the American and European press, and to use such an "anti-Russian narrative" in Russia's domestic policy. 

The consul generals to Istanbul of three European Union countries have staged a courtesy visit to daily Hürriyet’s editor-in-chief following the two violent attacks on the newspaper’s offices last week. Domenach said they had come to visit Hürriyet to support freedom of the press, as well as to express their good wishes to all newspapers in the country and the Turkish people. 

It was a “public diplomacy disaster,” thinks Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), a Berlin think-tank. “Germany is seen as the harsh, heartless hegemon of the euro zone, ready to bully small countries into submission.”

German leaders cannot allow their country to be seen as being disinterested in the debate or only wanting to push through its own objectives behind closed doors. Möller suggests that the Federal Government should approach opinion leaders in the media and EU think tanks to justify their positions during the financial crisis — and to also respond directly to any criticisms.

Big meals, to be sure, are an indispensable tool of diplomacy. People who have come a long way need to be welcomed and put at ease by their hosts. They are more relaxed and friendly with good food and drink inside them. They feel under a greater obligation to be polite and cooperative. But the EU is not a club of ambassadors, or even of politicians. It is, whether we like it or not, a form of government, a bloated version of a country. It has a commission, a court of justice, a parliament, a legal personality, a passport and a foreign service.

The European Forum Wachau is a European debate event and will be held this weekend at the Stift Göttweig in Lower Austria. The event was launched in 1995, the year of Austria's accession to the European Union. Participants of the conference titled “Has Europe reached its limits? Reflections on Europe’s future role on the global stage” will discuss topics such as, the EU as a security provider, the EU's new mode of regional cooperation and the EU and her neighbours.