René Magritte, the surrealist painter, lived and worked in Brussels formost of his life. So it seems only appropriate that the European Union - an increasingly surreal organisation - should have chosen to base itself in Magritte's home town.
The hint of surrealism in the EU's affairs struck me at the organisation's most recent summit, after I overheard a conversation in the corridor. A flustered diplomat was insisting angrily to a journalist: "This is not a non-paper." It was a pleasing phrase, faintly reminiscent of Magritte's masterwork "This Is Not A Pipe".
