The heads of state and government of the G8 countries have failed to come up with solutions to the pressing problems of the EU, admonishes the left-leaning daily taz: "It's time to rename G8 the B8 – for 'Baffled Eight'. What US President Obama, French head of state Hollande and Chancellor Merkel have produced at the G8 summit in Camp David isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Platitudes and pro forma compromises are meant to hide the fact that the 'big eight' don't agree on any of the most important points - and that they don't have the slightest idea how to go about solving the euro crisis. … What will happen to Greece? What will become of the Spanish banks? What happens if the people in the crisis countries finally lose their trust altogether and plunder their accounts, as has happened in Athens? How can the rating agencies be induced to keep calm, instead of inflaming the crisis - as they did last week - with new downgrades? … The meeting of the Baffled Eight produced above all the following impression: that of a sense of bafflement.” (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Eric Bonse
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

The G8 summit at Camp David was nothing but a display of national egoism that ended without any concrete resolutions, writes the liberal business paper Diário Económico: "The highlight of the G8 summit was that no one did anything. In summary it may be said that Obama, Merkel and Co. just watched the finale of the Champions League together. Otherwise the meeting ended in a void and Europe's fate continues to hang in the balance. Basically each country simply stated its own convictions: The US wants to promote growth with government programmes, Germany wants to stick to austerity while France prefers the idea of euro bonds and England as usual wants none of all this. With weak politicians that appear to live only for their national agendas, it will be difficult to somehow improve the situation." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Politics, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Bruno Proença
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

The new French President François Hollande failed to convince other leaders of his economic policy concepts at the G8 summit, meaning Merkel still has the upper hand, the conservative daily ABC concludes: "It's impossible to talk of winners and losers when it comes to meetings like this last G8 summit because such occasions are designed not to produce winners or losers. But one can certainly talk of those who maintained their position and those who failed to achieve their objectives. And François Hollande fell far short of his. The first to arrive, he managed to secure Obama's support, but even that didn't persuade Angela Merkel to change her opinion. And as everyone knows, her country is the decisive one in Europe. The new French president wants to reverse Europe's economic policy with concerted measures that put stimulus before cuts and growth before austerity. But a glance at the lengthy, confused, redundant and ultimately insubstantial final declaration of the summit is enough to see that he wasn't successful." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » France, » U.S.
All available articles from » José María Carrascal
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Barack Obama and François Hollande both focus on growth as the prime impetus for reviving the European economic policy, and will hence be acting in tandem in the time to come, writes the left-liberal daily Le Soir: "The compliments Obama paid to the new French president during their first meeting were not at all meant to make up for his having snubbed Hollande during the electoral campaign. Seen objectively, in calling for a European growth policy François Hollande has become Obama's closest ally. With Sarkozy's departure all eyes were on the difficult emergence of the Merkollande tandem. But instead what we will see in the time to come is Obamollande. And as was the case with Sarkozy and Merkel, this is not a question of personal affinity." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Economic Policy, » Politics, » France, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Jurek Kuczkiewicz

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to have recommended to the Greek president that a referendum be held in Greece on whether the country should remain in the Eurozone. Merkel's faux pas has only worsened the situation, writes business paper Imerisia: "Now the markets are not just wary of the Greek politicians and their crisis policy but also of the Europeans. They're convinced that the Europeans, and in particular the Germans, won't be able to solve the crisis. ... The Germans' dumb approach to tackling the Greek problem serves as proof. These politicians have turned a relatively small debt problem into a crisis of the entire Monetary Union." (19/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Elections, » Germany, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Thanasis Lirtsogiannis
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

By adopting a sober style of governing, the French President François Hollande is trying to distance himself from his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy. A pose the left-liberal daily Libération doesn't buy: "A French president who stops at red lights, a prime minister who spends his holidays in a caravan, a minister who arrives at the first Council meeting by commuter train sporting jeans - oh yes, jeans, that item of clothing that is capable of changing the face of the world, just like Mark Zuckerberg's hooded sweatshirt. One would say Hollande's storytellers wanted to give the first days of his presidency all the appearance of a Scandinavian-type normality. This isn't a government, it's a semaphore. As if it were necessary to emboss the return to normality in people's minds, and very quickly at that. ... This government has one principal enemy. It's not the Right, it's scepticism. Whether young or old, we have never encountered a government that did what it said and said what it did. Many of us who are over fifty remember Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, as a string of of con artists, lying as if it were their native language." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Society, » France
All available articles from » Daniel Schneidermann

The presumed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi died on Sunday in Tripolis. His 2009 release from prison in the UK owing to lack of evidence and serious illness was highly contentious. The case is still not closed, warns the left-liberal daily The Independent: "But there is unfinished business still. Megrahi's abandoned appeal followed a three-year Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission investigation that set out six different grounds upon which there might have been a miscarriage of justice, as he had always claimed. Several of the families of Lockerbie victims also believe in his innocence, and the representative of the families of some of the British victims described him yesterday as 'the 271st victim'. With so many loose ends remaining and so many questions about the original trial unresolved, the Scottish Government should agree to a public inquiry into the tragedy. Mr Megrahi's death is no reason to stop trying to get to the truth." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Global

The two day Nato summit began in Chicago on Sunday. The EU must redefine its own security interests, the Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski writes in a commentary for the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "The new strategy should strengthen European identity - against crises and against the egotism and nationalism that cause such crises. It must be the expression of a joint, long-term security strategy based on mutual trust among the states. Here, the priorities of the EU states must complement each other. This strategy must at the same time redefine the EU's role within Nato, without it ending in both assuming the same tasks. … The political ping-pong in relations between the EU and Nato so far must finally be replaced with a common strategy and complementary action." (21/05/2012)

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All available articles from » Jacek Saryusz-Wolski

The Greeks are receiving preferential treatment in Europe simply because 2,500 years ago they invented democracy and the Olympic Games, columnist Berthold Seewald complains in the conservative weekly Welt am Sonntag: "But the ensuing 2,500 years are ignored: the fact that after the Greek, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Avarian, Bulgarian and Turkish invasions, there was hardly anything left; that Greek Orthodoxy has developed neither a monastic work ethos nor commitment to public welfare; that the clan and clientele structures left over from 400 years of Turkish rule are still very much alive. …Two key words determine the rhetorical impact of the problem: democracy and sustainability. Democracy was invented 2,500 years ago in Greece, while sustainability is linked to the realisation that at some point we need to find a balance between the available resources and our needs, because as we all know, our planet's resources are limited. … Greece stands as a reminder of the most important political experiment in history and of the surrender of a society in the distribution of privation. The one is a glorious past, the other a tormented future." (20/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Remembrance culture, » Europe, » Central Asia
All available articles from » Berthold Seewald
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Speculation over a Greek euro exit is unsettling Romanians because Greek banks hold roughly a quarter of the shares in local banks. The economist Cristian Socol nevertheless remains optimistic in the blog portal Contributors: "The Euro Group will not let Greece go completely bankrupt because the costs of an uncontrolled bankruptcy would be higher than keeping Greece in the Eurozone. ... In addition, Romania has now learned to deal institutionally with unwanted macro-economic events. There is a crisis management group at the National Bank BNR which is preparing for every scenario. ... Added to that, Romania has one of the most solid banking systems in the EU. And in fact the Greek banks are really quite solvent. ... For that reason we should remain rational, keep calm in our judgements and not get all in a flap at the first negative signs. It is hard to distinguish between passing and permanent threats, but it is important. Otherwise exactly what is written in the macro-economic textbooks will happen: the prophesies will become self-fulfilling." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Financial Markets, » Banks, » Economy, » Greece, » Romania
All available articles from » Cristian Socol
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

A heavy earthquake in the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy left seven people dead, 50 injured and thousands homeless on Sunday. You can't prevent earthquakes but you can prepare for them instead of treating them like strokes of fate, the liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera writes: "When Ferrara was half destroyed in 1571 and was full of the dead there was talk of God's punishment and rulers bringing disaster. But centuries later it's inadmissible to talk of tragic, unpredictable events in view of the victims and destruction in the region. Because now we know precisely which areas are prone to earthquakes. … We can despair over the destroyed old buildings but not accept the collapse of new buildings with resignation. … Other countries would pass stringent building regulations and hold regular courses on how to react in an earthquake." (21/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Natural disasters, » Natural disasters, » Italy
All available articles from » Gian Antonio Stella

Monarchs from around the world have gathered at Windsor Palace for a celebration lunch to mark Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne. It is no contradiction that many of them represent democracies, writes the conservative daily Basler Zeitung: "It is striking how often precisely the politically advanced countries have retained the monarchy: England, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian nations. The only old democracy in Europe that never had a king is Switzerland. The Northern European monarchies, a historic paradox? Only at first glance. In attaining broad political powers relatively early, the British, Dutch and Danes could come to an arrangement with their rulers: who needs to overthrow a king whose only tasks are ceremonial? And so the monarchs in London, The Hague and Copenhagen have been able to put up their feet and relax. Metaphorically speaking, that is." (20/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Society, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Hansjörg Müller

Russia won a 6-2 victory against Slovakia in the Ice Hockey World Championship on Sunday. But despite its defeat the Slovakian team has made an impressive comeback to the world elite after years in the shadows, writes the liberal daily Sme: "After beating 24-time world champion Canada in the quarter-finals the Slovakians celebrated an admirable triumph against their Czech rivals in the semi-finals. It was only in the final against Russia that the winning streak ended. The team even won the support of the otherwise disinterested audience in Helsinki. Our boys didn't just get lucky or win by fouls but fought their way through despite the pain. The most important thing was that the people back home believed in the team and went back on the streets to watch the public viewings with bated breath for the first time in years. The silver medal increases the self-esteem of the entire nation." (21/05/2012)

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All available articles from » Vojtech Jurkovič