If Athens won't accept an EU budget commissioner it must be possible to exclude Greece from the Eurozone, writes the liberal daily Kainuun Sanomat: "The cradle of democracy is not even prepared to discuss the loss of its right to self-determination. And yet Greece still expects to receive another 130 billion euros in aid from the EU and the IMF after it has reached an agreement with its private creditors. This shows once more how dangerous it is to allow the debtor to gain the upper hand. ... Greece is fleecing its creditors. Athens may have been forced into greater budgetary discipline but its reactions to the demands have been as unclear as the revelations of of the Oracle of Delphi. ... Only the threat of being thrown out of the Eurozone will bring Greece to its senses. This requires the recapitalisation of European banks since they must be in a position to compensate for the losses this move would entail." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Finnish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Greece, » Europe

In demanding an EU budget commissioner for Athens Berlin is making itself even less popular, warns the conservative daily Die Welt: "A budget commissioner alone is of little use. ... Greece must set up an administration and a tax authority that meet Western standards. At the same time, like everywhere else in Europe, a basis for sustainable economic growth must be created. Greece can only regain its self-determination through growth. Even with no budget commissioner the Greek state can neither function nor make its own decisions without foreign help. It is up to Athens to improve things as swiftly as it can. It may be doubted whether the German plan for temporary foreign control over Greek finances would prompt the Greeks to recognise their faults. But as a provocation the plan for a budget commissioner has worked perfectly. Germany has accepted the role of the bad cop. (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Ulf Poschardt

Berlin wants Athens to renounce its sovereignty in financial policy. But Germany's proposal is not properly thought through, criticises the liberal daily La Stampa. "One can understand why the Germans are so bitter. But apart from the fact that introducing an EU budget commissioner to supervise Greece's budget is not legally feasible it wouldn't help anyway. This is not about sending an outsider in to make the decisions. It's about implementing the decisions. If the Greek tax authorities are unable to track down tax evaders, ordering them to do so in German is hardly going to make them any better at it. ... The question is whether Greece's bankruptcy and the contagion of other countries like Portugal can still be prevented." (30/01/2012)

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Germany, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Stefano Lepri

The Arab League suspended its observer mission in Syria on Saturday, after which the Syrian military cracked down harder on the opposition on Sunday. The UK and its allies must now persuade China and Russia to introduce sanctions, the liberal-conservative daily The Times demands: "A regime that murders civilians by the thousand loses its presumption of sovereignty. The genocide committed by Saddam Hussein against the Iraqi Kurds and attempted by Slobodan Milosevic against Kosovan Albanians ought to have demonstrated that lesson. Britain and its allies on the Security Council should impress on Russia and China, who have thus far been averse to sanctions against Syria, that Mr Assad must stand down. The Arab League, having inadvertently provided cover for the repression, should be at the forefront of that diplomatic effort. The longer Mr Assad remains, the greater the risk that the eventual reckoning for his regime will be terrible." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Global, » Syria
Who's saying what » Arabs fight for freedom

A day-long strike against the Belgium government's austerity programme has brought public life to a standstill. It began on Sunday evening and is to last all day Monday. But if the unions want to overcome the debt crisis and the recession they are going about it the wrong way, writes the liberal daily De Standaard: "The path to a better future is extremely narrow. It has less to do with ideology than with realism. But for it to lead anywhere at all mutual trust must be restored, and today's strike is not helping here at all. ... Above all tomorrow is important. Consumers and entrepreneurs are afraid. They must regain the belief that the crisis can be overcome. But another kind of trust is also lacking: the belief that when we are finally more prosperous again, the wealth will be more evenly distributed. ... We need nothing short of a new social pact. Strikes like today's, which only exacerbate the differences, merely divert attention from the key issue. Only when we make painful decisions together and the burden is shared evenly will our condition improve." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Trade unions, » Belgium
All available articles from » Bart Sturtewagen

The negotiations over partial debt-relief for Greece have not reached completion as anticipated. Above all there is still one problem with the policy, writes Jean Quatremer on his blog Coulisses de Bruxelles: "One question still remains open. Must public creditors also say goodbye to part of their money? Because even if the private investors - that is banks, insurance companies, hedge funds etc. - accept a loss of over 50 percent, the Greek debt burden would only drop by 28.5 percent. ... A further problem isn't being talked about at all: the 80 billion euros granted in May 2010 as bilateral loans are linked to a punitive interest rate. ... In other words: this means an automatic increase in the Greek deficit, and consequently its public debt. What an irony!" (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Politics, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Jean Quatremer
Who's saying what » Greece in dire straits

The conservative Slovenian opposition leader Janez Janša was elected as the country's new prime minister on Saturday after the election winner, left-leaning Zoran Jankovic, failed to achieve a majority two weeks ago. The daily Delo predicts that Janša's second term of office as head of government will be more difficult than his first between 2004 and 2008: "Janša is returning to power under changed circumstances. His coalition consists of five parties now whereas last time it was four. He is taking over the reigns in the midst of a serious economic crisis that will drain the coalition's energy. The coalition itself had certain difficulties assuming its mandate. The friction over the distribution of ministerial posts doesn't bode well. ... This also explains why one of the MPs from the coalition didn't vote for Janša on Saturday. In the end we now have a prime minister who must still spend quite a bit of time in court answering questions about the Patria tank case." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Slovenian)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Slovenia
All available articles from » Zoran Potič

The European Central Bank has failed to remedy the financial disadvantages of highly indebted euro states with the low-interest euro loans it issued in December, writes US investor George Soros in an article published in the daily Público: "Indeed, that supposed solution leaves half the eurozone relegated to the status of Third World countries that have become highly indebted in a foreign currency. Instead of the International Monetary Fund, it is Germany that is acting as the taskmaster imposing tough fiscal discipline on them. This will generate both economic and political tensions that could destroy the European Union. ... My proposal is to use the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to insure the European Central Bank against the solvency risk on any newly issued Italian or Spanish treasury bills that it may buy from commercial banks. ... For the first time in this crisis, the European authorities would undertake an operation for which they have more than sufficient resources. Coming as a positive surprise to the markets, it would reverse their mood. After all, markets do have moods; indeed, that is what the authorities have to learn in order to deal with financial crises." (27/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Europe
All available articles from » George Soros
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Europe must urgently improve its competitiveness vis-á-vis the emerging Asian economies if it is not to lose its current leading global position, the former British prime minister Gordon Brown writes in an article published in the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "Europe's stagnating economy is in the throes of the transition from our 20th-century western-dominated economy to an Asian-led world. Once Europe was responsible for 40 percent of the world's output; already it is down below 20 percent. Within a decade - if we do nothing - it will be little more than half that, 11 percent. We are, in fact, at the sharp (and currently losing) end of huge historical processes moving production investment and trade from the continent of the first industrial revolution to the new Asia. And the jury is still out on whether today's crisis is, in effect, writing its own penultimate chapter in a story that will be entitled 'the decline of the west'. ... A strategy for growth through radically reforming our competitiveness would have been - and still is - Europe's best way of meeting and mastering this challenge, for without such a shift Europe will become marginal to global growth." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Gordon Brown

Bulgaria signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), at the beginning of January, which seeks to crack down harder on illegal downloads of copyrighted material. But this will do more harm than good, writes the socialist daily Duma: "The agreement turns every Internet user into a potential victim of seven or eight international mega-enterprises. ... With all the hue and cry about Internet piracy the fact is being hidden that in reality piracy doesn't inflict anywhere near as much damage on the music and film industry as is always claimed. The well-known writer Paulo Coelho, for example, has published links on his website where his texts can be downloaded for free in violation of copyrights. He has observed that people who read something of his for free and like it will then go to the bookshops and buy it, he said recently. Alone in Russia, he said, he has managed to sell twice as many books because of this." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Bulgarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Consumers, » Economy, » Global, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Alexander Simov

The World Economic Forum 2012 (WEF) came to an end on Sunday in the Swiss resort of Davos. This year too, the event was dominated by networking and lacked true substance, writes the liberal daily Tages-Anzeiger: "The WEF remains a PR platform giving the heads of large enterprises a chance to polish up their companies' image without provoking too much flack. The meeting in the snowy Alps is above all a huge contact forum where bigwigs can groom their networks. ... The WEF allows participants to feel the pulse of the times, understand how others view the crisis and learn what solutions they envisage. But what remains uncertain is whether the well-meant resolutions will really be implemented beyond the Alps." (30/01/2012)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Politics, » Economy, » Switzerland, » Global
All available articles from » Daniela Decurtins

Television stations close to the Romanian opposition made the anti-government protests in Romania seem much larger than they really were, writes the news portal Ziare.com: "The cleverest camera angles were used to present a handful of people as a huge, persistent mass. ... The television spoke of 'thousands of people on the street', giving viewers the impression that the protesters numbered tens or even hundreds of thousands. But in fact less than 5,000 people in the whole country took part. Presumably there are two reasons for this media propaganda. On the one hand the media moguls' political interests lie behind the coverage. And on the other hand the images of the protests got fabulous ratings. The people could watch an interesting street spectacle unfold on television, in which they themselves didn't want to take part. 99 percent of Romanians stayed at home - not because they were satisfied or happy to support the government. ... Rather they sensed the media's heavy-handed manipulation." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Romanian)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Audiovisual Media, » Media policy, » Romania
All available articles from » Constantin Racaru

The higher regional court in Copenhagen upheld a ruling against the Copenhagen police last Wednesday according to which the police held 178 people in custody illegally during the UN Climate Change Conference in 2009. The left-liberal daily Politiken agrees with the verdict: "The real scandal is that the violation of the rights of the demonstrators was not merely a mistake but a cynically calculated strategy of convenience. In a pragmatic cost-benefit analysis the rights and the integrity of the individual were given lower priority because minor claims for compensation would be paltry sums in comparison with the potential cost of police overtime, burning containers and smashed windows. The police simply opted for the cheaper solution. But the law is there precisely to protect us from this kind of abuse of power on the part of the authorities." (30/01/2012)

» full article (external link, Danish)
More from the press review on the subject » Human rights, » Denmark

Owing to loopholes in the current legislation the Czech criminal prosecution authorities are taking DNA samples from virtually anyone who is suspected of breaking the law at present. This applies not just in cases of suspected capital crimes, but also petty offences. The conservative daily Lidové noviny finds this state of affairs outrageous: "No one disputes that DNA analysis is an effective tool for criminologists. No one disputes that it is in the interest of any civilised country to put criminals behind bars. ... But if we want to be a civilised country we need civilised rules. And according to the rules, the state is there to help the citizen and not the other way round. In cases of violent crimes, of course DNA samples should be taken. But we can't claim that someone who once committed a property offence automatically has violent tendencies. This brings to mind the childhood saying that goes: He who lies also steals, and pulls off beetles' legs."  (30/01/2012)

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Crime, » Justice, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček