Europe needs a high representative for human rights

This week the 50th anniversary of the European Parliament and the Spring meeting of the European Council coincide, but neither event, it seems to me, will leave much of a political footprint. The Parliament's triumph has been overshadowed by a squalid row over expense payments that has served only to draw attention to its size and cost as well as, yet again, the gesture politics of its monthly Strasbourg plenaries.

Nor is the Spring European Council expected (I write before it has begu...