Europe declines to join an Anglo-Russian row

IS GORDON BROWN discovering that a policy of brooding disengagement with the European Union has its costs? At the most recent summit of the EU, last week, he was full of the fact that his fellow EU leaders shared his outrage at Russia's decision to shut down offices of the British Council (an official British government body for cultural diplomacy) outside Moscow.

Mr Brown, as well as his foreign secretary David Miliband, promised at a closing press conference that a stinging rebuke to Russia would shortly be issued by the Portuguese, who hold the current rotating presidency of the EU, in the name of the whole union.

Mr Miliband boasted:

"I think if you keep your eyes on the Presidency website, either today or at the beginning of next week, you will see a very clear statement on this issue. Many Foreign Ministers raised with me yesterday actually their concern about what all of us perceive to be an illegal Russian move in violation of the 1963 Vienna Declaration on Cultural Exchange."

Then it was Mr Brown's turn, as he announced:

"And I have talked to many Heads of Government today who are angry at what has happened. The Presidency statement will reflect that anger. This is completely unacceptable and unjustifiable behaviour and I think everybody I talked to recognises that the British Council does a great job culturally in every part of the world and should not be excluded from the job it is doing to promote relationships in Russia and to promote culture generally."

Alas for Mr Brown and Mr Miliband, the presidency statement on the British Council and Russia does not reflect much anger, because it does not exist. Shortly after the British duo explained how united Europe was behind Britain, it became painfully clear that the other member nations had no intention of issuing another public condemnation of Russia, just because (as some see it here), Britain is determined to butt heads with Mr Putin's government then expects the EU to come and help, even though Mr Brown is so disdainful of the union that he cannot even be bothered to turn up and sign the latest treaty with everyone else. That is an over-simplification of the mood in Brussels, but not by much.

Officially, the EU and the Portuguese presidency have agreed to raise the threatened closure of British Council offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg at a more "discreet level". There are ways of dealing with Russia that do not involve the "megaphone of issuing communiques", says one EU official.

None of this is calculated to bring the EU and Mr Brown closer, of course. It took Mr Brown several months to bring himself to make his first visit to Brussels as prime minister. Will we see him again, any time soon?