Federico Geremicca looks for a way to crack the problem of illegal immigration in Europe. "The answer does not lie in the energy spent trying to find new solutions, or in the possibility of Spaniards and Italians taking things into their own hands. Nor does it lie in a hypothetical further intensification of Spanish-Italian cooperation. ... Rome and Madrid cannot solve this problem alone. ... What will soon come to pass is a 'European Marshal Plan' aimed at the poorest African countries. For every other option, from military dissuasion to protective walls along the borders, has proven as ineffective as it is futile. ... This would not be the first time, moreover, that solutions to dramatic problems are arrived at out of necessity and fear, rather than conviction or generosity." (23/08/2006)

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"Ten years wasted, or nearly so, since the Summer of Saint-Bernard," laments editorialist Gerard Dupuy in a special edition of the daily commemorating the strong-arm evacuation by police, ten years ago to the day, of a group of illegal immigrants who had been occupying the Saint-Bernard church in Paris. "France continues to raise the barricades against immigration, unsuccessfully. The fate of illegal immigrants thus remains suspended between an impossible deportation and an improbable regularisation. ... Yet France will remain a land of immigration as far into the future as we can project, and awareness of this has been growing for ten years. Faced with this, the attitude of the two main political camps is different, but symmetrical. Each side is trying to reconcile its centrist tropisms with the competing demands of its extremes."  (23/08/2006)

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"In every respect bar one the statistics released yesterday about the Workers Registration Scheme for those seeking employment from the eight ex-Communist nations that joined the EU in 2004 demonstrate a success story. The exception is that the numbers are far, far higher than the Home Office forecast before this programme started," notes an editorial. Contrary to official estimates of 5,000 to 13,000 new arrivals per year, "the actual final tally of applications accepted ... was 427,000, a figure that is almost certainly an underestimation, as it excludes the self-employed — such as electricians, plumbers and the building trade. There will be some who argue that the size of this total is itself damning. That is mistaken. All this activity has spurred economic growth and produced tax receipts that otherwise would not have been forthcoming. ... In short, immigration is working." (23/08/2006)

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In the wake of the heated debate about Günter Grass's Waffen-SS past and calls for him to renounce his honorary citizenship of the Polish city of Gdansk, the author has written a letter to the mayor of Gdansk. German newspapers have published the letter. "My revelations about an important, but not dominating chapter of my life as a young man" have "triggered a controversy which among other things has unsettled the citizens of Gdansk and which has taken on threatening existential dimensions for me personally. ... It is not for me to point to all that has constituted my life's work over five decades as a novelist and socially active citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany. But I do claim to have understood the hard lessons I was given in my youth: my books and my political activity testify to this." (23/08/2006)

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Europe must boost its knowledge base, according to Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of Bruegel, a Brussels-based think-tank. His main finding - that "the average EU adult is significantly less educated then counterparts in other industrialised countries" - is based on comparative data compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and by Harvard and Korea Universities. "A large part of the EU population has completed only primary education and less than 20 % (against 40 % in the US or Japan) has reached tertiary level. ... Europe's prosperity will not last if it does not address its underinvestment in human capital. With roughly as much public money and much less private money going to education than in the US, and significantly fewer outstanding educational institutions, it can expect a slow but inexorable erosion of the basis of its prosperity." (23/08/2006)

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Belgian economist Philippe Defeyt, an administrator at the Institute for Sustainable Development (IDD), believes that sleep is one of the frontiers that capitalism seeks to conquer. "The consumer and worker have this 'handicapping' habit of sleeping and resting more than a third of their lives. ... How much time lost that could be spent consuming and working, bustling about and getting from point A to point B ! ... Sleeping time risks falling even further, following a secular trend, already galvanised by the most diverse innovations (TV, Internet, energising beverages...) More time to consume and work could well be within our reach. But is this really what we need ? Or want ? Do we really want to go into overtime every day ? By making our nights more beautiful, rather than shortening them even more - wouldn't that enrich our waking lives ?"  (23/08/2006)

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French historian Jean-Marc Dreyfus, a researcher at the German Historical Institute of Paris (IHAP), responds to an article by Etienne Balibar and Jean-Marc Levy published in the same newspaper. "What is troubling about the interpretation proposed of the fate of the Jews in the 20th century, the Arab decolonisations and nearly 60 years of conflict between the Jewish state and its neighbours is that in seeking to criticise Israel, the authors remove from the historical stage the very group of oppressed that they claim to be defending. ... A second point emerges from a reading of the article: the power of already antiquated images in the description of Israel. ... The description of the state of Israel as a nationalist, colonialist and militarist state dates from the very inception of Zionism. ... These images have travelled from Nazi Germany to various anti-Zionist Soviet committees and towards the Arab world, via Third World advocacy." (23/08/2006)

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The German law firm "Prussian Claims", which specialises in asserting property claims for Germans who were expelled from their properties in Eastern Europe, has confirmed that it intends to bring the cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Marek A. Cichocki, an expert at the College of Europe in Natolin, comments: "A lawsuit like this certainly won't improve German-Polish relations. It will only add fuel to the fire. But the atmosphere is already so tense that that won't make much difference either. One thing is clear: there are serious problems arising from the past in the bilateral relations. Poland should promise to give legal advice to Polish citizens who may be affected by the lawsuit. It's their property assets that are the central issue here." (23/08/2006)

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György Petö, mayor of Budapest's Obuda district, has made a public statement that he worked for the former Hungarian Ministry of State Security's counterintelligence department between 1979 and 1983. Andras Schiffer, spokesman for the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), calls for Petö's resignation even though he did not actually work with Stasi spies. "There were no retributions after 1989. Former state security functionaries are entitled to take part in public life within the democracy. The principle of legality was maintained after the change of system but it has been taken too far. A clear distinction between dictatorship and rule of law, between the roles and functions of the times before 1989, forms the moral foundation of the new Republic. Functionaries of Hungary's former Ministry of State Security cannot be regarded as 'professionals' of a democratic constitutional state because back then they controlled the dictatorship." (22/08/2006)

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Huge forest fires raged on the Haldiki peninsula of north-eastern Greece on Monday, August 21, resulting in the death of a German tourist. Stavros Psiharis argues that the authorities failed to rise to the challenge. "The government was unable to do anything other than offer apologies for its immobility ! ... Beyond the danger that these fires pose to Greek and foreign tourists, the country has seen a genuine ecological disaster in this protected region. The minister for the Thracia and Macedonia region [Georges Kalantzis] saw fit to apologise for the delay in the rescue effort and the absence once again of any immediate response from the government. But this is not a forgivable error. We are talking about lives in danger ! How can apologies console these people who have lost everything ?" (23/08/2006)

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"The daily raises a warning about growing Islamophobia in Spain following an incident a week ago at the Malaga airport. Two men mistaken for Pakistanis were removed from a plane at the request of passengers who feared a terrorist attack. "The winds are truly not favourable at the moment for Muslims in the West. Terrorism is largely to blame, but even if it didn't exist, there would still be incidents of discrimination. Many citizens have become suspicious. They have assumed the role of judges dispensing very summary verdicts, condemning others for no other reason than their physical features and the way they dress. It is regrettable that we, ordinary citizens, give in to panic and go further than our authorities where security is concerned. Such behaviour merely fertilises the ground for those who incite ethnic hatred."  (23/08/2006)

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The debate surrounding Austria's nursing crisis has intensified following revelations that Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's mother-in-law was illegally tendend on her deathbed by a Slovakian nurse. "The Austrian chancellor's family did exactly what thousands of other Austrians are doing in this situation," writes Michael Völker. He adds: "The market for illegal carers has grown in Austria because the state is unable – either logistically or financially – to provide care for the people (mostly old) who need it. By turning a blind eye politicians have created a system in which illegal employment and exploitation is tolerated. The chancellor is responsible for this situation. For years, the state has ignored the problems with the nursing system, which would have collapsed long ago had it not been for the illegal workers. The result is that even the Schüssel family, in a time of need, resorts to using nurses from Slovakia working illegally." (23/08/2006)

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Copenhagen's Royal Theatre has come under attack for having few foreign actors in its ensemble and presenting very few plays from other cultures. Stockholm's Dramaten theatre, on the other hand, has a very different approach, as Dramaten director Staffan Valdemar Holm explains to Anita Brask Rasmussen in an interview. He points out that around 20 percent of the employees come from abroad and that the theatre is attracting a new audience with pieces from Africa, Asia and South America. "We have to admit that we tend to employ people who are like ourselves. You have to make it a specific goal if you want to change this. It's important to have a vision for your company. This doesn't hinder creativity. On the contrary, it gives artists even more motivation to know they work for a theatre that has a higher goal. To talk of national theatre is artificial nowadays because the term 'nation' no longer means what it meant 10 or 30 years ago." (23/08/2006)

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Journalist Peter Rak went to a concert given by the famous "Yugoslavian" songwriter and actor Rade Serbedzija in Macedonia. Rak writes that Serbedzija is a product "of the confusion of the Balkan war and the collapse of the common cultural and spiritual region to which he belonged with all his heart and soul. For the star of Yugoslavian film and theatre, the collapse of Yugoslavia came like a great deluge that led many of his colleagues to resign themselves to a life of loneliness. Serbedzija is one of the few who has risen again." Rak writes that eventually "along with Serbedzija and his generation, the last 'Yugo-nostalgia' will die. This is a longing for a return of the good old days, related not only to the personality cult surrounding  Marshall Tito but also to the mental climate of those times. Then there will be a vacuum until one day a new, impartial generation overcomes the old resentments and antagonism." (23/08/2006)

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Nuno Pacheco denounces the fundamentalism of anti-tobacco crusaders whose fight on behalf of public health occasionally leads to blatant censorship. "A few days ago, a British citizen discerned a dangerous incitement to smoke in two Tom and Jerry cartoons: in one, there was someone smoking a cigarette, in the other, a cigar. The zealous citizen filed a complaint on the grounds that this was harmful to children. He was heeded: the scenes were cut. For whose benefit ? That of the children ? ... It would be normal to see them, knife in hand, chasing their parents or throwing their brothers out the window. This is what we can see in cartoons. For the time being, none has complained. ... Countries where drugs, war and violence are a daily spectacle for everyone (including children) take pleasure in cracking down on minor dangers in an attempt to reveal an inner purity that they lack." (23/08/2006)

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Journalist Ahmad Taheri went to see the Holocaust cartoon exhibition on show in Tehran. The exhibition was conceived as a response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons but has apparently failed to attract much interest. "The exhibition is marked by hatred of Jews or 'the Zionists'," writes Taheri. "But it seems that on the eve of the UN Security Council meeting those in power aren't entirely comfortable with the chamber of horrors on show at the Museum of Palestinian Art. The newspapers are silent on the subject and even the intellectuals don't seem to know anything about it. In the four hours this visitor from Germany [Ahmad Taheri] spent at the exhibition only six people came: three Western journalists with their three interpreters." (23/08/2006)

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