"Proving the responsibility of the Serb nation is a historic challenge for the Bosnian legal team," the daily writes. "The plaintiffs are going to try to take advantage of the fact that the ICTY has recognised the cold-blooded slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 as genocide, and has accepted the evidence presented concerning other massacres of Bosnian Muslims. ... The trial that opened yesterday in the Netherlands' administrative capital allows international justice to close its net around the most atrocious events that Europe has known in recent memory. And it will end when two protagonists who remain on the run finally take their seats in the dock: Radovan Karadzic and the butcher, Ratko Mladic." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » South East Europe

Stéphanie Maupas, the daily's reporter at the Hague, finds that "what is at stake in this case, first launched 13 years ago, is more than a simple acknowledgement from the court that the Serb state committed genocide in Bosnia. Sarajevo is asking for compensation and, beyond that, is hoping to derive political benefits. The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords froze the country into two entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, that emerged from ethnic cleansing. If it is favourably disposed towards Sarajevo, the decision could provide additional arguments for the creation a truly unified state, something to which the Serb Republic particularly objects. It would, in fact, become difficult for the international community to continue defending a divided state one of whose components is a product of genocide." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » South East Europe
All available articles from » Stéphanie Maupas

"No matter what sentence the International Court of Justice pronounces, it will have far-reaching political repercussions," observes Cyrill Stieger. "If Bosnia-Herzegovina wins the case, it would be another hard blow for the Serbian government. Belgrade would then be forced to pay reparations to the tune of billions of euros. The country would be more harshly criticised than ever and would be stigmatised at an international level. Serbia's view of the collapse of Jugoslavia and the wars which it involved would be utterly discredited. Belgrade's carefully nurtured view of history would be destroyed forever." On the other hand, if Serbia wins the case, Stieger points out that "it wouldn't only be a hard blow for the Bosnians, the main victims of the Bosnian war, but also a disavowal of the UN War Crimes Tribunal." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » South East Europe
All available articles from » Cyrill Stieger

"Is Europe still Europe? That is to say, a society in which the individual knows how to laugh? Put another way, can we still find the European citizen in the era inaugurated by Rabelais and Cervantes?" wonders the Spanish historian Fernando García de Cortázar, who argues that Europe loses a part of its values when it forgets the role played by derision and humour in its construction. "Europe grows smaller, repudiates its own opinions and abandons itself when it forgets that it is a product of the reason and spirit of philosophy and that it was created through outbursts of laughter. ... It bears reminding that freedom begins with a smile, not of pleasure, but of wisdom. And it is not a coincidence that dictatorships stifle the outbursts of laughter of poets and thinkers." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Europe
All available articles from » Fernando García de Cortázar

Social scientist Josef Weidenholzer still hopes that Europe's social model can be saved. He says northern European social models could serve as an example for Europe as a whole. Typical for these universalistic welfare states is "a large volume of government transfer fee payments and each government giving top priority to employment policy, in addition to the strong role of the State. Owing to its delayed industrialisation, southern Europe has failed to develop specific social welfare systems, while eastern Europe is still coping with the problems arising from its transition to a free market economy... A European social model that really deserves the name would guarantee prosperity and competitiveness, prevent social division by safeguarding basic social rights, and help to reinforce the concept of Europe in the minds of Europe's citizens." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Josef Weidenholzer

The president of the Czech Republic can now rejoice, Lubos Palata comments regretfully. "After years as a loner swimming against the current of EU development, he has now found an influential ally" – his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski, writes Palata, with reference to the Polish president's visit to Prague. Palata points out that last summer, Klaus proposed the founding of an "organisation of European states" which would "set the EU back by at least 20 years, Together with Kaczynski he has now called for a European constitution which would preserve the EU in its present state. The rest of Europe has good cause for concern. Gazeta Wyborcza sums up the situation nicely: 'Klaus is a dividing force. Years ago, he, together with the Slovak Vladimir Meciar, contributed to the division of Czechoslovakia, and now it's his ambition to divide the EU.' Kaczynski could prove to be an even better accomplice than Meciar was back then." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Luboš Palata

Income tax returns are accessible to the general public in Norway and Sweden. The Greens in Denmark now want to introduce the model there. The theory is that if you have access to your neighbours' income tax return, they will be less likely to try and evade taxes. If somebody's lifestyle doesn't concord with their registered income, anybody can inform the tax authorities. The conservative newspaper has its doubts about the measure: "Perhaps in this way more cases of tax fraud would come to light, but the price in the form of unseemly curiosity is far too high. We are obliged to inform the state about our incomes, but at least one can expect the data to be treated confidentially... The income of the individual is a state affair, but it doesn't belong in the public domain." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Denmark

Helena Kennedy, the chairwoman of the Power Inquiry, an independent committee that spent 12 months asking why voters feel disengaged from politics, says apathy is not the issue. "The people are not the problem. They are interested in politics. They do care about the bread-and-butter issues that affect their lives; they do care about their communities and neighbourhoods, their country and the world, but they are totally alienated from the political system. We heard it up and down the country - formal democracy is failing the people. ... The disenchantment cuts across all sections of society, but the political class just do not get it. They do not realise how deep the alienation runs. ... More fundamental reform is needed if we are to re-establish a democracy fit for a 21st-century People." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Helena Kennedy

Twenty years ago, social democrat Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead on the street. His murderer was never caught. The murder was a turning point in Swedish politics. Palme's biographer, Claes Arvidsson, points out that Sweden is still marked by Palme's policies, for example in its neutrality. "Palme was an exceptional politician at an exceptional time - with both a dark and a light side. There's the image of Palme as an aggressive politician who fought for his own ideas. And it's true, he was. But it's also true that he didn't fight to push through his personal opinions in three of the major issues of the time: EU membership, employee funds and nuclear power... The party and state power came first." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Sweden
All available articles from » Claes Arvidsson

"We are moving towards a viable resolution of the Cyprus problem," writes the Greek daily. According to the Greek minister for foreign affairs, Dora Bakoyannis, "the financial aid for the Turkish Cypriot part of the island approved by the European foreign ministers yesterday in Brussels marks a step on the road to Europeanisation for the Turkish sector, and provides a fresh basis for negotiations." The EU aid, in the amount of 139 million euros, is aimed at breaking the isolation of the Turkish part [of the island]. Today is D Day for Bakoyannis, who plans to follow, from Brussels, the meeting in Paris between the Greek Cypriot president, Tassos Papadopoulos and the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan. This meeting is instrumental to the progress of the negotiations, even if the idea of a confederation of two zones and two communities [contained in the UN reunification plan proposed in 2004] no longer seems to be suitable." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Cyprus
All available articles from » M. Sinthourakis

One of the conditions for Lithuania's EU membership was that it would shut down its "Ignalina" nuclear power station in Visaginas by 2009. However, the power station provides a large part of the electricity consumed in Lithuania, as well as supplying Latvia and Estonia with electricty. Therefore, for some time now, the Estonian power group "Eesti Energia", while agreeing that "Ignalina" should be closed down, is calling for the construction of a new power station in Visaginas. "All of a sudden, since yesterday, Estonia can also unexpectedly regard itself as a nuclear power. It's as easy at this: the prime minister signs a piece of paper and Estonia commits itself to participating in the construction of a nuclear power station in Lithuania." According to the commentator, the decision was made prematurely and he demands answers to questions pertaining to reactor safety, as well as whether the electricity will actually reach Estonia and where the nuclear waste is to be deposited." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economy, » Estonia

"French corporations are aggressive players in the game of European cross-border acquisitions, gaining control of such British household names as Allied Domecq. Yet when French companies are themselves the targets of foreign bidders, French politicians play dirty pool," the daily argues in an editorial entitled "Bad for Europe" that denounces the government-orchestrated merger between Gaz de France and Suez. "...The European market had begun to open up, with the value of cross-border deals doubling between 2004 and 2005, to £198 billion [290 billion euros]. That progress will be put at risk if predatory cartels, operating behind barriers raised against outsiders, are allowed to develop and then carve up the market between them." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economy, » Europe

The legendary Sarospatak book collection, which was confiscated by the Red Army during the Second World War and taken to Russia, has now been returned to the old library where it once stood. The daily speculates on whether other Hungarian art treasures taken to Russia will be returned: "The large art collections which were brought to Budapest's banks at the beginning of the war certainly fell into Russian hands. The banks' strongrooms were plundered by Russian soldiers. According to the law, art treasures brought to Russia as spoils of war are regarded as reparations for the war and are therefore Russian property. Only churches and victims of fascism are entitled to demand the return of their property. Fortunately, this applies to most of the spoils of war taken in Hungary. The owners of the huge Herzog, Hatvany und Kornfeld collections were Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Culture, » Russia

Music critic François-Xavier Ajavon pays tribute to the composer Dimitry Shostakovich on the 100th anniversary of his birth. "This giant among composers, by some wonderful irony of history, was born Russian one year after the abortive revolution of 1905 and died Soviet in 1975, without ever having given up on the pressing need to compose a personal body of work, despite the political context. Shostakovich's human and artistic trajectory offers us a lesson in life and demonstrates that the strength of willpower triumphs over everrything, even the unspeakable. ... What other composer would have recovered from the lowliest attacks by that handful of western intellectuals who so clumsily submitted to the dogmas of modernism ...? What other composer would have resisted as well as he did the thousand and one attacks of which he was a victim in his own Soviet homeland - a homeland to which he nonetheless remained forever loyal and whose only thanks was a relentless intellectual war ...?" (28/02/2006)

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All available articles from » François-Xavier Ajavon

The film 'Grounding - The final days of Swissair', which appealed to many filmgoers in German-speaking Swizerland, tomorrow comes to cinema screens in French-speaking areas of the country. And Pascal Gavillet predicts another box-office smash for this Michael Steiner film that tells the story of the airline's demise. "The story is one with which everyone is supposed to be familiar. More or less. Beyond a few liberties taken with reality, ... the film sticks to the timeline of a tale that seems like something out of fiction. ... Except that 'Grounding' is also a film that bears the creative stamp of its director. Through his worked-up, electric narrative, which follows minute-by-minute, in real time, the collapse of a large airline, Steiner manages to confer on the company the status of a full-fledged character. In 'Grounding', he manages to capture the soul of Swissair. Hence the emotion that moves and overwhelms us." (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Culture, » Switzerland

The Slovenian weekly Mladian reprinted the Muhammad cartoons early in February. President Janez Drnovsek quickly apologised to the Muslims and calmed down the situation, writes Manca Poglijen. The country's Muslim leaders consequently called for restraint. At the same time, Llubjana's municipal authorities finally "decided, after 37 years, on the site for Slovenia's first mosque... This was a big step towards recognising the Muslim community in Slovenia... Slovenia's Muslims have been waiting for their own mosque since 1969, when they first filed their application." Around 47,000 Muslims live in Slovenia, making Islam the country's second most important religion. (28/02/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » Society, » Slovenia
All available articles from » Manca Poglajen