Stephen Hart, a White House spokesman, declined to comment, saying the President never responds to a court proceeding in progress.

Again, I do not think I need to discuss how badly many environmental regulations are transposed in the EU, as there are enough infringement proceedings in progress – a plethora of them, in fact – to demonstrate that.

In an interview last week in New York, the Greek culture minister, Georgios A. Voulgarakis, stressed that the Greek judiciary is independent from the government, and that his talks with the Getty and other museums did not hinge on any legal proceedings in progress.