Thursday, July 13, 2006 | Euro News TODAY I stopped by the European Commission headquarters to pick up my permanent press credential, and took the opportunity to attend the daily press briefing. On the way in, I walked past MTV in the front lobby interviewing someone, which struck me as interesting. The daily press briefing is a short, sweet meeting where a few people in government brief the press on developing stories. This is, of course, an official channel -- attending a press conference is not actual reporting, but it's an important place to forage; you can pick up story leads, meet people and sense the atmosphere. The briefing was translated into eight languages. There, I had my moment of irony for the day. One of the stories involved approval of an oil pipeline that will soon deliver 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Caspian Sea region through Georgia and Turkey to western Europe. In the middle of the global "war on terror" and war for oil, with oil supplies dwindling, with a G8 energy summit happening at the moment in St. Petersburg, the press European press corps had just one question for the issue's spokesman. One question! The silence was eerie. Finally, I raised my hand, was recognized, and chimed in with the second question -- how are you going to protect this thing from terrorism? (Answer: We've buried it, and we're counting on the local nations through which it passes to provide security.) Next issue: a European court has knocked down the merger of Sony and Bertlesmann AG that created the world's largest second label. For background, AP reported today: "The Court of First Instance -- the EU's second-highest court -- backed a challenge by the independent record label group Impala, saying regulators did not properly show in 2004 that the new company would not have a monopoly position in two ways. Either one would be enough to strike down regulatory approval." The questions started, and went on and on. It was the most pressing issue of the day. The spokesman, for the issue, Jonathan Todd, took about 10 questions before the press officer moved onto a new discussion, and was mobbed out in the corridor afterwards. So, there you have it. In today's top story from Europe, a record company merger was knocked down. It's already in the Baltimore Sun: http://snipurl.com/t65l