Sarkozy U-turn on French jobs?
The day in Brussels started bright, sunny and warm. I woke to birdsong for the first time this year. But the first day of spring is not warmed by any rays of economic sunshine.
One senior diplomat gloomily told me he could scarcely believe people were still walking around carrying on with their normal lives when the prospects looked so bleak, and none of the levers so energetically pulled by world leaders seemed to be working. I am not quite sure what he thought they should be doing instead.
Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, a German, spoke of the "dark cloud" hanging over Europe. In the car industry alone he said 400,000 jobs were at stake. But the commission is warning the way forward is not to throw out the single market or free trade.
He said they would do all in their power to fight protectionism or what he called "pernicious economic nationalism".
The commission is poring over plans by six countries (Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden) to help their car industries, to see if they do break the rules. There is a suggestion that the French may do a U-turn on their plan to link their billions of euros' worth of aid to keeping plants open in France. But the competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said "there should be a solution by the end of the day: but it takes two to tango". I'll be watching to see if Mr Sarkozy's dance card is full.
It is one of the trials of reporting the EU that the commission likes to announce various different proposals all on the same day. So more on the suggested EU financial watchdog this afternoon.
I’m Mark Mardell, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
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