"Europe's electricity lobby has once again shown the ladies and gentlemen in Brussels who's the boss," Franz Schellhorn comments after yesterday's meeting of the EU energy council. "Following this victory in Brussels the power companies will be allowed to hold on to their de facto monopoly and thumb their noses at customers who want to change to another supplier. Why? It's simple. Virtually all Europe's power companies have majority state-ownership. And competition in a market full of state-owned companies is a contradiction in terms. The state doesn't want stiff competition to drive electricity prices down - thereby cutting the profits of 'its' energy companies. Their profits are the greatest money-making machines the state still has in its possession." (16/02/2007)

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Commentator Ingrid Müller is appalled at the EU energy council's decision: "Credibility is a valuable asset - particularly when it comes to negotiation. However, this most recent session of the EU Energy Council forces one to conclude that the energy and economy ministers don't even know how to spell the word. By failing to impose legally binding minimum quotas for renewable energies on energy consumption and limiting themselves to giving recommendations, they are acting against their heads of government and state... Apparently it's not only the nuclear energy-fixated French who have influenced the Energy Council's decision. The power companies, which are making record profits thanks to their tax-deductible investments, have managed to talk the ministers into adopting their short-sighted business concept too." (16/02/2007)

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The daily underlines the difficulty in defining a common EU energy policy. "The slowness of decision making within the European community was described in the 1980s as the 'one step forward, two steps back' technique. Today, as Europe's last success, the introduction and consolidation of the euro as an alternative to the American dollar, grows more and more distant every day, the definition has changed: the technique is two steps back and one timid step forward. ... This was proven once again yesterday. Facing the growing concern around the future of energy in the EU, with questions of provision and global warming, the minimal agreement reached among Energy Ministers was once again reflected in a lack of common impetus necessary to take up the decade's major challenge: to obtain cheaper energy that pollutes less and depends less on importation." (16/02/2007)

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The French philosopher and writer disapproves State financing of places of worship, an idea upheld by Nicolas Sarkozy, French right-wing presidential candidate. "Religion is not a public service, like education, culture or health. It only concerns the faithful, thus only some citizens. Public spending, the funds of which come from taxes paid by atheists as much as by the religious, should therefore not be used to finance places of worship any more than it should be used to pay for spreading of atheism. ... It is not necessary to pay in order to control. Only the rule of law counts. What is important is not the nationality of an imam, but his respect of republican law. Let us not get our battles mixed up. It is not foreigners per se who pose a problem for the Republic, but whoever wishes to elude common law and substitute it with their own particular law, whether religious or customary." (16/02/2007)

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All available articles from » Henri Pena-Ruiz

In an interview with Anita Zielana, political scientist Samuel Salzborn talks about whether minority rights are being properly protected in Europe. "There are two basic approaches to the protection of minorities: one approach is to protect the individual against discrimination. The other is oriented towards the minority as a group; it doesn't aim to protect the individual, but to preserve the culture, customs and language. This second approach is gaining an ever stronger foothold in the European context, and in my opinion it contributes to escalating conflicts. This collective protection of minority rights is a problematic development. By taking measures to promote integration and understanding, also within the education system, we could facilitate communication between cultures instead of setting them apart, because the consequence of the collective rights approach is that people end up living in homogenous, closed-off environments. The historian Karl Heinz Roth once fittingly referred to this as the danger of creating 'ethnic group zoos'." (16/02/2007)

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Jean Quatremer denounces the publication of an anti-Semitic booklet written by a Polish Member of European Parliament and financed by the European Parliament. "Do you want to know everything there is to know about the 'Jewish civilisation'? Everything about the 'biological differences' between Jews and 'nice people'? Everything about the impossibility of living with the 'Jewish civilisation' in Europe? Read the little book 'Civilisations at War in Europe', that the European deputy Maciej Giertych, one of the leaders of the Polish Family League. This masterpiece of anti-Semitism was presented, on Wednesday [14th of February], in Strasbourg, by its author. The reading of this booklet, featuring Parliament's logo, obligatory for all publications that it finances, takes us straight back to before the war. ... This literature from another era has left Hans-Gert Pottering, the Christian Democrat President of the European paliament speechless ..., but it is not sure that Parliament will be able to do anything..." (16/02/2007)

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Aleksander Smolar, a Polish political expert and president of Warsaw's Stefan Batory Foundation, doesn't believe there will be new elections in Poland - despite the recent resignations of the country's interior and defence ministers. Talking to Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, he explains that the right-wing ruling party PiS would no longer be able to find a coalition partner. "The ability of the PiS to form a coalition has been reduced to zero. They have gobbled up all that was left to be gobbled up... They will try to get through their period in office without new elections. The money flowing in from the EU will help them because it neutralises the negative impact of their government. As far as politics is concerned, I'm not very optimistic. I can see the internal chaos getting worse and worse and the country becoming increasingly isolated. For me, the Kaczynskis' absence at Davos was symbolic... Poland is being held hostage by the private psychological problems of its president and its prime minister." (15/02/2007)

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The daily comments on the results of a survey on the opinion Greek people have of foreigners living in their country. "The Greeks indicate that they do not want any more 'foreigners' and feel that politicians have failed to manage the situation correctly. But the analysis is surprising. While 88 % of Greeks consider that immigrants do not pose a problem, the same percentage of people believe that the country has reached its limit for welcoming immigrants. Even worse, if 54 % consider that immigrants help the country's economy, 56 % accuse them of being responsible for the rise in unemployment. ... Beyond negative clichés on immigration, Greeks remain tolerant, as 62% agree that immigrants should vote in elections. Better still, they agree that the arrival of immigrants, determined to succeed, contributes to raising standards in education." (16/02/2007)

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"Sex, booze and horrid friends: those three evils dragged Britain's youngsters to the bottom of a 'child well-being' index published this week by UNICEF", notes the weekly. "The UN agency ranked 21 rich countries on everything from babies' birth-weight to how often children chat to their parents. The Netherlands came top, followed by those infernal Scandinavians, who always seem to do well in such contests, and a raft of Catholics. Britain brought up the rear, standing shoulder to shoulder with America. Young Britons fared badly in each of the six broad categories. ... UNICEF's methods are open to criticism. Poverty was measured mainly in relative terms. Britain, with 16% of children in households where income was less than half the median, was worsted only by America. But this says more about inequality than it does about deprivation: 50% of median family income in 2000 was $7,000 in Hungary, when translated to reflect purchasing-power parity, but $18,000 in Britain. Many might prefer to live on the latter. Other results were self-assessed, which may have played to Britons' love of complaining." (15/02/2007)

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Whenever a mosque is built somewhere in Germany it triggers a national debate, Matthias Drobinski observes. He speaks out in favour of a more "visible Islam". "A new, different religion is becoming visible. Islam is no longer living a shadowy, backyard existence; it's no longer confined to old warehouses on the outskirts of cities, where the faithful creep about instead of walking. Islam is moving house. Perhaps not to the best locations, but at least to places where other people live. Its houses of worship are now topped by domes, and even if they don't have great towers, they at least have a minaret. Muslims are building in those places where other people are - and are therefore no longer far away. They're breaking into normality, into familiar places. Once a mosque has been built and inaugurated, the climate changes. Now it's there, and although it may still seem a little strange, it no longer seems scary… A visible Islam needs transparent communities and also visible partners on the non-Muslim side." (16/02/2007)

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Jaroslav Simov, a journalist with Radio Free Europe, comments in an interview with Ondrej Soukup on relations between Russia and Belarus, which took a drastic turn for the worse in the wake of the oil and gas dispute. "Moscow obviously no longer regards Alexander Lukshenko as a reliable ally. It's impossible to rule out the possibility that Russia will try to force Lukashenko to renounce his power and replace him with someone who supports Russia's interests." However, Simov notes, at the moment the issue does not have top priority in Russia where they are gearing up for the election campaign. "This gives the President of Belarus, the democratic opposition and Europe, too, a window opportunity to establish the conditions for a dialogue that could reduce Russia's influence in Belarus. Nonetheless, the fundamental question remains as to whether the Belarusian regime is prepared to allow a thaw-out period to begin in its own country." (16/02/2007)

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The daily considers that the referendum on the reform of the status of Andalousias autonomy due to take place on Sunday, February 18th, is 'artificial'. The referendum is essentially aimed at giving the region more proficiency in social and economic matters. "The parties urging to vote 'yes' - the PSOE [Socialist Party], the PP [right-wing Popular Party] and the IU (Izquierda Unida, far-left coalition] - have made a lot of effort to try and arouse the citizen interest, but without success. ... Rarely have we ever been made so aware of the rift between the real needs of citizens and the aspirations of politicians, or to pit it more clearly, questions that only interest parties. ... Despite public meetings and demonstrations it seems that the Andalousian public is not prepared to go and vote on Sunday. Thus the PSOE, as well as the PP, would be satisfied with 50 % participation." (16/02/2007)

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There's gold in the Romanian village of Rosia Montana. A Canadian company now wants to exploit Europe's largest goldmine. So far the citizens of the village, who would have to be resettled if the company got the go-ahead, have managed to stop the project with the help of Western European environmentalists. Historians like Ioan Piso also oppose the exploitation of the goldmine because they say it would lead to the destruction of a cultural heritage that is around 2000 years old. Piso calls for UNESCO protection for Rosia Montana: "This village is of great archaeological importance for Romania. At the same time the Alburnus Maior, a former goldmining area of the Romans which is now called Rosia Montana and is the best preserved Roman settlement in modern Romania, is also important for the EU. The famous wax tablets documenting the mining were discovered here in the 18th and 19th centuries and serve as a source of Roman history. Alburnus Maior has not yet been adequately researched, but we know that shortly after the invasion of Dacia an entire people moved here from Dalmatia to mine for gold… This site is historically important because these ancient Roman mines were once the main source of gold for the Roman Empire." (16/02/2007)

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Bérénice Bailly met the British artists Gilbert & George, as a retrospective of their work is being presented at the Tate Modern in London until May 7th. They consider the exhibition is "an extraordinary moment, an explosion. Our last retrospective in this country took place in 1981 ! For forty years now, we have been rejected by the art establishment and this is continuing: the critics are sharpening their knives. But they forget that we have a huge following here. What is equally important is the fact that we have had no problems of censoring with this exhibition. It could never be held in an American museum, never in a million years." According to them, art can change the world, because, "forty years ago, you ended up in prison as soon as you were different, sexually or racially. Today you are free to express yourself. We like to think that we have played a little role in this evolution." (16/02/2007)

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Iljan Vasiljev, former director of the Bulgarian Agency for the Promotion of Investment, sees new opportunities for environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism in Bulgaria: "For Bulgarians, nature is the most important renewable resource… Europe has long since grown weary of the industrial age and has learned to appreciate clean air, clean water and clean soil. It's just difficult for us to understand why elderly Brits, Scandinavians and Japanese have now settled in the Bulgarian villages we ourselves abandoned in favour of city life and culture. Don't they come from precisely those places we're heading for?" (16/02/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Demographics, » Bulgaria

"The atom is the European Union and its commissioners. The electrons are the fifteen thousand people responsible for influencing decision making for guidelines and regulations." This definition of how the EU works is proposed by the weekly, which investigates the growing role of different lobbies. "Most belong to the industrial world: 70 % of lobbyists exist to push the interests of chemical, energy and other markets. Besides them, - really alongside, not together with them and considerably smaller - , are members of civil society and non governmental organisations (NGO). The common target of all these people ? Those within the EU who lay down the law and make juicy invitations to tender. Their weapons ? Persuasion and the ability to dig up information. Their battle ground ? The European district [of Brussels], this old 'Leopold district', that lost its beautiful art nouveau houses to the steel and glass of voracious constructions." (16/02/2007)

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