Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Michael Arthur, Thank you very much for your kind introduction. It is a pleasure for me to be your guest today. In the mid-19th century, Tsar Nicholas the First of Russia reputedly coined the phrase of the “sick man” of Europe to describe the Ottoman Empire. Over the course of the 20th century, many other countries had that dubious honour: Britain was among them, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. The term has been applied to Russia itself. And there are sources referencing France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, and Italy as the sick man of Europe through the decades. 2 Germany ... (full story)