"After ten years' existence, the Euro-Asian dialogue has yet to find its cruising speed", remarks Richard Werly in his editorial. "Who realises that every two years the ASEM summit unites the 38 countries representing 43% of world commerce and that tomorrow, with India, it will bare even more weight? ... This Euro-Asian forum is at the heart of the debate on energy security ... However, behind the structures, governments are having difficulty recognising their interests. What Asian country can be convinced of a multilateral dialogue with EU while, on ground level, each of the member states is fighting over contracts and rushing forward to sign bilateral free-trade agreements? ... Despite the promising press reports published this Monday (September 11th) concluding the Helsinki summit, the ASEM is also stalling because Europe does not take account in its dialogue of the mutations that have arisen in Asia." (12/09/2006)

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Referring to the EU-Asia summit, Alexander Hagelüken describes how Europe is gradually discovering Asia. "Regardless of whether the subject under discussion was protecting the environment, exports or human rights, the summit in Finland showed how many existential issues Europe and Asia already have in common. The EU states can therefore no longer afford to take the discovery of Asia at the leisurely pace they have done up to now. However, particularly regarding Europe's relations with China, it is now becoming clear how complicated this process will be. The desire for quick business could induce Europeans to compromise values such as democracy and freedom of opinion… How far should Europe go in its efforts to do business with Asia, and in particular with China? The Chinese government once again demanded at the summit in Helsinki that the weapons embargo be lifted, and that its companies be given more freedom regarding exports, without itself offering to make any concessions. As far as human rights are concerned Peking is pretending to be deaf… It's obviously trying to test Europes' limits. But it's the EU's soul that is at stake here. The principles of a one-party dictatorship are not desirable imports." (12/09/2006)

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The Finnish newspaper welcomes the fact that Europe and Asia have come together to conduct negotiations under the auspices of the ASEM summit, and hopes the summit will mark a breakthrough in environmental and energy issues. "Hopefully this will also be the case for China, whose rapid economic growth also entails increased energy requirements. Coal supplies the country with quick and cheap energy but causes a great deal of pollution over large areas. Therefore it is imperative that China start to focus on renewable energies – an area that is also important for Finland and other EU states, and which should be used more intensively." (12/09/2006)

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Warsaw-based philosopher Barbara Stanosz explains in an interview with Przemyslaw Szubartowicz how she doesn't feel much more comfortable in today's Poland than in the Poland of the communist era. "Firstly you have the social situation. Poverty is not as widespread as back then, but it's more humiliating and intense because it's passed on to the next generation. Secondly, we're being told once more that there is just 'one correct' ideology. The Catholic Church with all its disadvantages – cult worship of authority and ideological leaders, methods of indoctrination, and discrimination against those who do not adhere to it – has taken the place of the 'scientific view of the world'. Nowadays pure police methods are used less frequently to oppress those who don't conform, but the way these people are isolated or marginalised by society is similar to how it was back then." (11/09/2006)

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"So what will the new Freedom Tower be like?", inquires Steve Rose, the daily's architecture columnist with regard to the project, that will be built by David Childs. "A foretaste has been provided just across the road, where 7 World Trade Centre opened a few months ago. This sleek, 52-storey office tower was also designed by Childs, and replaces the third, smaller tower that collapsed on 9/11. Beyond being a prototype for the Freedom Tower, 7 World Trade Centre could point the way for a new generation of tall buildings. It contains a host of sustainable design innovations, but it is also one of the most terrorism-proof buildings in the world.Our landscape has been transformed, post-9/11, by barriers, x-ray machines, screening facilities - the apparatus of counter-terrorism. The fact that architects today are wrestling with how to incorporate this into designs is difficult to couch in positive terms. ... Efforts have at least been made at Ground Zero to offset the new architecture-against-terror with friendly improvements to the urban fabric." (11/09/2006)

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One hundred years ago, on September 11th 1906, Gandhi spoke for the first time in Johannesburg about non-violence. What is the use of this concept now? Adriano Sofri, former leader of the extreme left-wing Italian movement 'Lotta Continua', released from prison for health reasons at the end of 2005 and a regular contributor to the Italian press, looks back on this story. He asks in the light of the events that marked the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st - the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen, the Intifada, the war in Chechnya - whether the question of non-violence still makes any sense. "Non-violence dates back to Hindu, Greek and Evangelical wisdom. ... Non-violence places a wager on the capacity of human beings to listen and disarm. But one should not bet in the dark. Not to the point of convincing ourselves that evil does not exist and that we have no enemy". (12/09/2006)

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The new EU states of Eastern Europe and Switzerland were to join the group of countries forming the Schengen zone in October 2007. The reduction in border controls which this would entail has now been postponed until 2009. A spokesman for European Justice and Interior Minister Frank Frattini said on Monday that the delay was due to technical and operative problems. Bozo Masanovic expresses his disappointment: "This affects the ten states that have quadrupled their efforts regarding monitoring of the EU's outer borders since their entry into the EU. Now they are shocked and feel they have been put at a disadvantage. The computer-aided information system is slowing down the European integration project.… The new members see the delay caused by the computer as a sign of mistrust on the part of older members." (12/09/2006)

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There are manpower shortages in many of Latvia's economic sectors, and the advantages and disadvantages of immigration have become the subject of heated debate. Aivars Ozolins calls for the country to open its labour market to Bulgarians and Romanians, who will soon become EU members. But do they want to come to Latvia? "Higher salaries are just one of many factors that induce workers to look for work abroad. Language skills, geographical proximity and cultural ties are also important factors. Today, there are already large numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians living in Italy, Spain and Greece, and it's unlikely they will change direction and come north following accession to the EU. Nonetheless, legal immigration is better than the illegal immigration which results from restrictions. Latvia need not fear a massive influx of Bulgarian mechanics and construction workers. On the contrary, there's little hope that our increasing shortage of manpower will be alleviated by immigration from other EU countries." (12/09/2006)

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Polish President Lech Kaczynski is currently visiting Israel. Yossi Melman, commentator for the Jerusalem-based daily Haaretz, takes the occasion to praise the good relations between Poland and Israel. "There can be no doubt about Lech Kaczynski's warm feelings towards Israel and the Jews. He's certain to pursue the policy Poland has conducted towards Israel up to now and which has made it one of Israel's best friends, if not its best friend, within the EU. We have no conflicting interests with the Poles like we do with France or Spain. The only problem in relations between the two countries now is that the 'League of Polish Families' has joined the Polish governing coalition. People took note of that here. It's not that Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych is anti-Semitic, because he's not. But there are people close to him with radical views." (12/09/2006)

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"Spain's political stance on immigration, considered one of the most liberal on the European continent, has begun a turnaround with the arrival in the Canary Islands of more than 5,000 sub-Saharan immigrants over the last month and a half", the paper writes about a possible consensus between the government and the opposition over an end to regularisation of illegal immigrants. "Migration policies applied in Spain have fluctuated a lot, since the country's big parties have changed their minds twice, even when in power. There have been eight waves of regularisations, five carried out by the Popular Party [PP, right-wing], three by the Spanish socialist party [PSOE], which formation achieved the biggest number. ... The government's new political discourse concerning immigration will be judged according to its short-term effects on the massive arrival of immigrants." (12/09/2006)

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"Accused of triggering a surge of illegal immigration candidatures because of its considerable regulation of those without papers, the Spanish government might begin to toughen up its policy." comments the editorialist Gérard Dupuy, who draws a parallel with the Current French government's policy applied to immigration. "Forced repatriations are on the agenda and the same lack of realism exists on the other side of the Pyrenees as on this one. A socialist authority [José Blanco, the Spanish Socialist party's number 2] maintains that the great majority of the 800,000 illegal immigrants apparently living in Spain are due to be expulsed. This is impossible, and it is irresponsible to let it be believed otherwise. " (12/09/2006)

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The newspaper comments on the first parliamentary elections in Montenegro since its independence, which were won by Milo Djukanovic: "For many years now Djukanovic has been accused of corruption, but the people still seem unwilling to get rid of him. At the same time this small country's population appears to be very disappointed with its political elite. Nonetheless, the majority still apparently believe that Djukanovic is most likely to achieve EU membership for Montenegro.... Montenegro can no longer hold Serbia responsible for its own problems. Djukanovic was once a close ally of Slobodan Milosevic, but he broke off contact with Belgrade just in time. Now he must show he is also capable of breaking with the corrupt legacy of the past, and that he can tame the economic and political elites that have been controlling the country for the last two decades. It's no easy task for Djukanovic to break with a regime of which he himself was the architect." (12/09/2006)

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Ferdi Sabit Soyer, Prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (unrecognised) announced on Monday, September 11th, his resignation and the dissolution of his government to President Mehmet Ali Talat. Pampos Kaskanis comments: "With this organised resignation, the republican Soyer [of the CTP, Turkish republican party] is putting an end to his coalition with the democratic party led by Serntar Denktash, the son of the former Turkish Cypriot leader [Rauf Denktash], whose extremism and bad will caused the failure of negotiations on the reunification of the island. ... One cannot therefore speak of a political scandal, but rather of the desire of Soyer and Talat to get rid of people going against the Europeanization of the Turkish party", notes Pampos Kaskanis. Ferdi Sabit Soyer should form a new coalition in the next few days. (12/09/2006)

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The Russian state bank VTB has acquired a five-percent stake in European aeronautic and space company EADS. The newspaper's Russian correspondent Peter A. Fischer comments: "The move fits in with the Kremlin's efforts to propel Russia's aircraft industry into a new future… Apart from a few positive exceptions, the Russian aircraft industry lacks money, a modern, internationally oriented management and the ability to successfully market services. But if all goes according to the Kremlin's plans, this will soon be a thing of the past. The well-endowed Russian state plans to invest billions in revitalising its aircraft industry and making it a key player on the international market." However, according to Fischer, although Russia is following a clear strategy with its purchase of EADS shares, the success of this enterprise is entirely dependent on the good will of the current members of the consortium from Germany, France and Spain. "Without their approval, Russia won't be able to assume executive functions at EADS even if it acquires ten percent of the consortium." (12/09/2006)

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"The very idea of a history of English is problematic, and its politics are thorny. Two new histories cover the usual ground convincingly, yet both offer fresh approaches," writes Henry Hitchings, author of 'Dr Johnson's Dictionary: the extraordinary story of the book that defined the world'. "English comprises a forest of varieties. These include Irish English, ... as well as Maori English, the West African English spoken in Ghana and Sierra Leone, and recent fusions such as Singlish (spoken in Singapore). Where a history of English might once have focused on its 'standard' form, an authoritative telling must now take account of dialects and variants. Furthermore, where it was once acceptable to talk about 'the triumph of English', it is now customary to identify the extraordinary spread of the language as a mark of the ruthless imperialism of Britain and America. At the same time, a subtle version of its history may well give space to the history of languages spoken in England, which is something quite different." (12/09/2006)

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Andreas Kilb praises the International Literature Festival currently taking place in Berlin: "Six years after its establishment the literature festival still has no programmatic objective, no formula that would make it eligible for funding. It has its special themes (this year it's francophone literature of Africa and the Caribbean), but it has no fixed categories or hierarchies. For critics who want to sort literature not just according to genres but also according to sales figures, … this confusion represents a considerable drawback, but in reality it's a blessing… Between two obligatory engagements you might find yourself listening to a reading by the wonderful Pico Iyer telling stories about encounters at airports, about jetlag and departure lounges, about the strange English spoken by Indians, or a burning house in California. Iyer, born in England to Indian parents, now lives in Japan and America, and his prose is as colourful as his life – a pastiche of places, pictures and perspectives. Edouard Glissant's hopes for the birth of new beauty in the global world take shape in Iyer's miniatures." (12/09/2006)

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