Austria and Luxembourg have prevented a quick solution on the automatic exchange of bank data from being reached at the EU Summit. And while corporate tax avoidance was condemned, no measures were formulated to counter it. The half-heartedness of the EU heads of government hits above all the average wage earner, the state-run liberal daily Wiener Zeitung criticises, explaining that they have "no chance to turn gross into net with the help of Irish holdings or subsidiaries in Jersey, Gibraltar or Luxembourg and then repatriate the money through an Austrian foundation. ... In the US a Senate committee has summoned the head of Apple to answer for the company's policies. ... Something like that would be unthinkable in Austria. But why? The idea isn't to diminish real achievements, but to address the issue of how taxation can be avoided. In the US a legal loophole has been discovered which might now be closed. And the American public can have the feeling that their representatives are trying to remedy such injustices." (22/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Reinhard Göweil
Who's saying what » Europe fights tax evasion

EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has stressed at the Brussels summit that harmonising taxation in Europe is not on the agenda. This is the reason why the leaders of the states are taking a particularly demonstrative stance against tax dodging, the liberal-conservative daily Jyllands-Posten admonishes: "Tax avoidance is only possible in the EU because the member states don't want to harmonise taxes and duties. On the one hand the EU countries accept in this way that it can be very advantageous to pay taxes in one country rather than another. On the other hand they are now announcing that it's unacceptable when citizens act accordingly. If a Europe with no borders and a single market is to make any sense, taxes and duties must be brought to more or less the same level. … The EU governments' campaign against alleged tax dodgers glosses over the lacking political will to give Europeans a genuine European Union, as they had been promised, and as they should have received long ago." (23/05/2013)

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Who's saying what » Europe fights tax evasion

The summit hasn't finished the task in hand but at least it's made a start, the liberal business daily Il Sole 24 Ore comments: "At least once the Europe that has no growth, that is churning out jobless people and de-industrialising while the rest of the world is experiencing an upturn, is not debating fundamental issues but focusing on concrete problems instead. The solution is a two-pronged approach: automatic data exchange and the reform of the lenient tax systems of individual member states. Easier said than done. … So has the summit produced a real breakthrough? No. … Was it futile? Ultimately, given the demands of key industrial sectors that are struggling for survival, the summit could mark the beginning of a new course. … Europe can no longer afford the luxury of a paralysed single market without standardised taxation, transportation and energy policies. It mast make up for lost competitiveness in order to grow and produce work again instead of unemployment." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Adriana Cerretelli
Who's saying what » Europe fights tax evasion

The automatic exchange of bank data would curtail the freedom of account holders, the journalist Diana Rusu argues on the blog portal of the liberal-conservative daily Adevărul: "We are facing a major moral dilemma given the times that await us. It is our duty as citizens to pay taxes to the state. This is how we could describe citizenship - as a kind of membership for which we pay taxes in exchange for government benefits. Yet we still have the freedom to use our property as we see fit. … But in the context of the deep-rooted crisis, the search for additional financial means is overstepping all the limits. It's true that large sums are being transferred to other states, some of which have been accumulated through illegal means. In other cases however it's just the money of citizens who want to invest it profitably. No one should be entitled to dispute our right to do so." (23/05/2013)

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Who's saying what » Europe fights tax evasion

Two men killed a British soldier on Wednesday in the middle of a London street and then shouted Islamist slogans. British Prime Minister David Cameron has classified the incident as an act of terrorism. The conservative Daily Telegraph sees in the killing the fingerprint of al-Qaeda: "For years al-Qaeda activists such as Anwar al-Awlaki [who was killed by US drones in Yemen in 2011] ... have been calling on their followers to launch their own home-grown attacks. Rather than trying to carry out sophisticated operations on the scale of the September 11 attacks, or the July 7 bombings in London in 2005, Awlaki urged his followers to take matters into their own hands and conduct basic attacks, such as launching suicide bomb attacks in British shopping centres, or attacking  British military targets. To date the intelligence and security services appear to have succeeded in disrupting these so-called home-grown plots, and a number of al-Qaeda terrorists have recently received lengthy jail terms. In one of these plots an al-Qaeda terrorist wanted to kidnap a British soldier in the Midlands and film himself beheading his captive." (22/05/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Terrorism, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Con Coughlin

In contrast to what was originally planned, the EU Commission will not be downsized in 2014. At their meeting in Brussels, the heads of state and government have decided that every member country will continue to have one commissioner in the EU body. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung takes an understanding view of the decision: "For many member states, above all the smaller ones, 'their' commissioner is the Brussels personality who's best known at home. Although according to the wording of the EU treaties these commissioners are neither the representatives of their country nor do they represent its interests in the EU, in practice they nevertheless form an important link between the local political system and the EU institutions. If you take away this personal connection, Brussels will become even more remote for the people of Europe." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Günther Nonnenmacher

The Pentagon is calling on Congress to approve 450 million dollars for the maintenance and renovation of Guantánamo in the new budget year, it was announced on Tuesday. This indicates that the prison will remain open, the left-liberal daily De Morgen criticises: "Not the president but the Republican majority in parliament is preventing the suspects in Guantánamo from being tried before a proper civil or military court. And the handing over of the prisoners to US partner countries is meeting with great resistance from the public in those countries. Obama has rightly pointed out that it's not just up to him to respect moral principles and human rights. This is certainly true. But now he is simply leaving it up to the next president to come up with the solution for Guantánamo, which for years he billed as a top priority. The fact that this humanitarian scandal continues to exist is unworthy of a Nobel Prize winner." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Koen Vidal

The French National Assembly is currently debating a university reform introduced by the minister for higher education, Geneviève Fioraso. The minister has come under fire for her proposal that more university lectures should be given in English. The regional daily L'Est Républicain believes such patriotism is senseless: "Opposing the language of Shakespeare is like rowing upstream under Niagara Falls. Ineffective. And even worse: counterproductive. Today's students dream of nothing but work experience abroad and download subtitled American television series on the Internet. Because especially in the sciences, English has simply become the Latin of today. But rather than taking an interest in what's really at stake in the university reform, its opponents prefer to wave the tricolour flag. ... The fatherland is in danger, save its symbols! All this is terribly French. Or better: [the paper writes in English] So French!" (23/05/2013)

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The Czech Republic's new president Miloš Zeman justified his repeated interventions in the day-to-day politics of his country saying that as the first directly elected head of state he carries more weight than his predecessor. The left-leaning daily Právo agrees and calls for the powers of the president to be extended: "It's not just about Zeman but about the future presidents. It was a mistake not to amend the president's constitutional rights with the introduction of direct elections because this certainly needs to be done. One can't expect a directly elected president to accept all the constitutional stipulations as they were before. Those who voted for Zeman certainly didn't expect him to just sit in the corner. It was clear that he would actively influence political events. Now that we have a directly elected president we must get used to it." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Jiří Němec

In November the Swiss '1:12 Initiative for Fair Pay' wants a referendum to be held in the country on limiting the pay of Swiss top managers to twelve times the amount the employee with the lowest salary in the company receives. The bosses are now in a panic, the left-leaning daily Avgi writes: "Today in some companies a top manager earns around 720 times what an employee in his office makes. The 1:12 Initiative is striking fear in the hearts of Swiss managers. The bosses of Nestlé, Novartis, Lindt, Glencore are aghast, and so far the bankers have refused to comment. That's because they rightly fear the Swiss will vote in favour of the initiative - just like three months ago, when 68 percent of voters agreed with the 'fat cat initiative' according to which top managers may no longer single-handedly determine their own salaries or bonuses." (22/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Kaki Balli

The Turkish Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan travelled to Washington last week for talks on a bilateral trade agreement. Because a customs union has existed between the EU and Turkey since 1996, American goods could enter Turkey duty free in the event that a free trade deal is signed between the US and the EU. The pro-government daily Sabah calls for a broad diplomatic initiative: "For Turkey, which has now signed 19 free trade agreements, an agreement with the US will present a difficult challenge for trade diplomacy. At a time when the customs union with the EU is also starting to result in losses, Turkey needs a success with the US. If we don't achieve that, US goods will enter Turkey duty free and the losses will amount to billions of dollars. For that reason not only Çağlayan and his team but also all the Turkish interest groups must engage in trade diplomacy." (23/05/2013)

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The British House of Commons has voted at the third and last reading on Tuesday in favour of introducing same-sex marriage. However with 133 votes against the bill Prime Minister David Cameron was made to feel the strength of the resistance within his own party. Writing in the left-liberal daily The Guardian, columnist Zoe Williams expresses dismay at the Conservative Party's infighting: "Yet I cannot help but be struck by the sheer ridiculousness, not just of the Conservative Party, but of Conservative opinion generally. It wades boldly into an area it could so easily avoid - sex, its nuts and bolts, their bizarre scorecard of what's moral and what isn't - and succeeds merely in drawing attention to their own carnivalesque failures to uphold the very institution they value so highly that they're prepared to tear themselves apart over it." (22/05/2013)

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A Croatian petition has gathered enough signatures to apply for a referendum on enshrining marriage between men and women in the constitution. The constitutional court should ban such a referendum, which would target same-sex marriage, the left-liberal daily Novi List writes: "What we're seeing here is an attempted uprising against homosexual marriage by means of plebiscite, even though there is no legal context for such marriages in Croatia to start with. ... According to the constitution, there can be no unequal treatment for reasons of gender. This is the decisive argument for declaring the petition anti-constitutional. ... Regardless of the 380,000 signatures that have been gathered, such a referendum may not take place. What next? A ban on marriages between Croats and Serbs? ... At least we should not take a great civilisational step backwards and ban something constitutionally that is not even allowed by law in the first place." (23/05/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Minorities, » Gender equality, » Human rights, » Eastern Europe, » South East Europe, » Croatia
All available articles from » Darko Pajić

For the forth night in a row, there has been rioting in Stockholm's suburbs, where many immigrant families live. According to the liberal daily Sme the riots are not justified: "Within Europe there are few states that are more tolerant and open to immigrants than the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Britain. But there too, there are serious problems. As in London in 2011, the blind rage is not the result of the children of immigrants having to fight for survival. But they definitely have problems when it comes to finding work. And even the extensive Swedish social benefits and integration programmes can't fulfil every wish. But that's no reason to run amok. The blame lies not just with the authorities or the attitude of the majority society towards immigrants. It also has to do with these young people's exaggerated expectations regarding what the state must do for them." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Peter Morvay

The number of people emigrating from Estonia doubled in 2012 compared to the previous year, it was announced on Wednesday. For the tabloid Õhtuleht, apart from risks the trend also brings advantages for the local economy: "Although emigration is further decreasing Estonia's already dwindling population, it also has several positive aspects in the short term. People have work and incomes, which prevents them from falling into poverty. And they are learning new proficiencies and skills, including perhaps the ability to stand up for their own rights. In addition, there are direct advantages for the economy. ... By the looks of things, the protest through emigration has already started to take effect. Employers are slowly understanding that salaries must be raised and working conditions improved." (23/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Maris Lauri