SOROS IS FUNDING NEW EUROPEAN CFR

Reading an article in The Guardian on the recent expulsion of four Russian diplomats I came across a reference to the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Say what?

The ECFR!

Yep. The ECFR.

In fact it is so new that they don't yet have a fully operational website.

http://www.ecfr.eu/

Even the web address is European! .eu

From the only availabe page we read;

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This is a temporary site. The official ECFR website will be launched in late 2007.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a new pan-European initiative for policy development, advocacy and communications which will be formally launched in the autumn of 2007. The mission of this new endeavour - backed by the Soros Foundations Network, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, FRIDE and the Communitas Foundation - is to promote open societies through a more integrated European foreign policy. The ECFR will have the following characteristics:

* A pan-European presence - with offices in Berlin, Paris, London, Madrid, Rome and Warsaw as well as a presence in Brussels and the new member states. It will be directed by Mark Leonard and presided over by a Council of prominent European figures drawn from the EU 27.

* A high-profile in-house policy team - working on strengthening European approaches to democracy and human rights, energy and the environment, proliferation and the international rule of law. ECFR will run research programs on the institutions of European power; Russia and the Eastern Neighbourhood; the Middle East and Southern Neighbourhood; and Asia.

* A strong focus on advocacy and communications - in order to help translate proposals into reality ECFR will use the latest technologies and new media tools to build a pan-European community of debate and activism in support of its agenda.