The best part of Digital Europe 2005 has been to meet fellow "classical liberals" here in Europe (in the U.S. we would call them conservatives or libertarians). Not only is the Centre for New Europe a welcome outpost in the bureaucratic environs of Brussels (Bruxelles, if you want to be continental), there is Istituto Bruno Leoni in Italy. I also met Pierre Bessard, who is working with the newly-formed Institut Constant to be a classical liberal voice in french speaking Switzerland. The Stockholm Network, meanwhile, links them all together in a (loose, to be sure) liberty-loving confederation. Through the Stockholm Network, I found the delightfully named Edmund Burke Foundation in the Netherlands, working no doubt to make sure that the glory of Europe is not extinguished forever.

With countries like Slovakia and Hungary adopting the flat tax, and hence beginning to pressure the high tax countries to the west, and the soft socialism of the EU being a voice for liberalism within these countries, there is cause for optimism.