"Better labelling for better health". This is how Richard Werly sums up the European proposals for a new labelling of food and drink [presented on January 30th by the European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou], in order to better inform consumers and fight obesity. The new regulations envisaged are due to replace those which have been in force since 1990. If they are adopted - no date has been specified for the moment - a certain amount of information already obtained will continue to feature imperatively on product labels, such as ingredients, the manufacturer's address, fabrication and sell by dates. Added to this will be an indication of energy value, the presence of carbohydrates, sugars, lipids saturated fats and salt." (31/01/2008)

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The daily stresses the need to fight the obesity epidemic in the UK. "We've tackled smoking, now for childhood obesity. While we are winning the war against nicotine, now that passive smoking is a thing of the past in public and smokers are ostracised to the pavement, the battle against fat is just beginning", comments the daily. "Schools, children's centres, GP surgeries, and leisure centres are taking part in initiatives to combat poor eating and lack of exercise. There can be few people who do not know the risks of high salt, sugar and a sedentary lifestyle, yet the message is still not getting through. Perhaps, like smoking, it will need the force of law to make sure we all become thinner, with subsidies on healthy foods and tax increases on the fatty varieties." (01/02/2008)

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Ralph Bollmann can live with a more extensive food-labelling requirement: "The big question is, 'How much influence should the state have in this area?' OK: it has to enable consumers to make informed choices about nutrition, in face of an overpowering food industry. That means, for example, comprehensive information on packaging, and maybe even warnings." But Bollmann adds: "There is no injury to third parties from unhealthy food – that's the difference from tobacco consumption. All those who favour using disparaging rhetoric or even bans to impose the aesthetic measures of the academic middle class on the new proletariat should keep this in mind." (01/02/2008)

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Rodrigo Fernandez met up with the Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin whose latest book 'Day of the Oprichnik' is currently being released in France, Germany and Spain. The author analyses the political situation in his country. "I wanted to transcribe an idea that has been on the minds of many Russians : It could be possible to build a wall to isolate Russia from Europe, the source of evil. A large part of Putin's team supports this idea. ... If a new iron curtain were to be built, Russia, unlike during the Stalin era, would drown in the past. It would go back to the 16th century when the Russian State was created by Ivan the Terrible. Soviet Russia had taken on a new shape in the Stalin era, thanks to Communist ideology and to new symbols. This is no longer the case. There only exists a notion of isolation and if ever this were to be concretised, we are bound to find ourselves back in the middle-ages." (31/01/2008)

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All available articles from » Rodrigo Fernández, » Vladimir Sorokine

After visiting Naples, Maike Albath wonders why the mountains of trash are still burning. She finds an answer in the books of Neapolitan novelist Domenico Starnone: 'In his books, the novelist, journalist and screenplay writer – born in 1943 in Naples, raised in Vomero but living for decades in Rome - describes how the city's original vitality turned into violence. The deep split in the city has a unique historical source: in 1799, the masses massacred the enlightened citizens among them, so as to preserve feudal ruling structures. 'Naples is both archaic and very modern.' Though the city was a leading European metropolis in the 18th century, it never produced a sustainable bourgeoisie, one that would have influenced the management and public life of the city, and invested money in it." (01/02/2008)

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Romania's National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) is on its deathbed. The constitutional court decided yesterday that the law that has regulated the council's work over the past eight years is partly unconstitutional. Ioana Lupea observes: "People's access to their own past and that of their rulers is temporarily closed. This court decision invalidates evidence already produced about cooperation with the political police of the Securitate secret service. The public will never know who else could have been unmasked, and those involved will be released from all responsibility. ... In one day, Romania has lost 18 years. Now it depends on those forces who call themselves anti-communist – that is, the president and government – to turn this catastrophe into an opportunity and overcome political rivalries." (01/02/2008)

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The daily comments on how the end of the Irish economic boom is being countered by development in Eastern Europe. "While the Celtic tiger takes a snooze, the young Estonian tiger is up and running. As are the Czech and Hungarian cubs. Those countries' envoys are coming here in numbers with the intention of wooing away some of those immigrant workers who have helped to drive our years of rapid economic growth. ... Poland's construction is booming and wages have doubled. ... Our economic success was dependent upon a generous flow of immigrant workers ... [but] a slowing economy will not be sufficient to sustain such a massive yearly influx. Improved employment opportunity in at least some of the growing economies to the east is good news for a young, flexible and mobile European workforce." (01/02/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Ireland, » Central Europe

The Spanish Catholic Church has clearly sided with the right in the campaign for legislative elections to be held in Spain on March 9th, by reproaching on January 31st the socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for negotiating with the Basque terrorist organisatioin ETA. The daily considers that the Church has intervened "with an intensity and ideology unseen up until now. ... Thus it has drawn a line under the tradition of a Catholic Church that used to play the role of mediator in conflicts as dramatic as those in the Basque country and in Ulster. ... Few non-religious states show as much respect towards the Church as Spain does. ... This belligerance is suddenly proving all the more shocking, as is the indecent pretention of imposing a moral cannon and preserving influential power that have nothing left to do with a modern nation composed of free citizens." (01/02/2008)

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Customs agents on Poland's eastern border with Ukraine and Belarus have been on strike for several days, demanding a raise of 1500 złoty (420 euros). But the government only wants to raise their salaries by 500 złoty (140 euros). Małgorzata Nocuń thinks the strike is inappropriate: "It's an open secret: Polish customs agents are, to put it mildly, not very friendly to those arriving from the east; smuggling of vodka and cigarettes from Belarus is blooming, there are long lines of cars waiting at the border. Today, Poland's eastern border is also the border to the EU. And we should be doubly ashamed of what's happening there." (31/01/2008)

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Danish TV has reported that the CIA has regularly used a Greenland airport as a stopover in the secret transport of prisoners. Denmark's government is planning to investigate. The paper comments: "This would not be the first time that Greenland has been misused for security purposes that are not officially acknowledged," says the editorial, referring to the Cold War period when Denmark secretly allowed the USA to store nuclear weapons on Greenland. "Whereas back then Denmark's lies about atomic weapons were primarily an expression of political convenience, today the situation involves an American policy that is substantially immoral and also damaging to the long-term war against terror. (01/02/2008)

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Requested by the European Commission to ponder the concept of multilingualism, a group of intellectuals delivered its report on January 31st. The Franco-Lebanese writer, Amin Maalouf, president of the group, insists on how important it is for the EU to preserve its linguistic heritage. "For Europe, linguistic diversity represents a healthy challenge. In order to manage this diversity, the EU should address questions that can no longer be avoided without compromising the future. How can so many different populations live together in harmony? How to give them a common sense of direction and a common fate? ... The respect of our linguistic diversity constitutes the very basis of the European idea that emerged from the rubble left by the conflicts that marked the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The European idea rests on the universality of shared moral values and on the diversity of cultural expressions among which linguistic diversity is a magnificent tool for integration and harmonisation." (31/01/2008)

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Emmanuel de Roux has been to see the exhibition entitled 'Rome and the Barbarians' at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. The exhibition looks back on the period that is generally considered that of the decline of the Roman empire, stretching from "the Emperor Marcus Aurelus(160-180) to the coronation of St Stephen, first Christian king of Hungary in the year 1,000 ... . The Celtic interlaced designs bequeathed by Ireland are displayed alongside Vandal mosaics from Tunisia. The Avar people's incised jewellery vies with the Germanic 'Cloisonné' gold work and Byzantine ivories. The most moving piece is perhaps the 'Epinal Glossary' (7th century), the first Latin-English dictionary (in its oldest form) that history has left us. The Church, constituting the administrative framework of new kingdoms, gradually unifies the continent. ... It is through this intense, gradual mingling that European civilisation was born." (01/02/2008)

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Mark Lawson considers that we are currently experiencing a "A new golden age in cinema". "The main reason for this renaissance is that all levels of cinema - from the people who put up the budget to the people who pay for tickets - have become less frightened of intelligence and complexity. In its first decades, the people who made movies tended to come - except for an injection of European intellectuals displaced by Hitler - out of mainstream art forms such as vaudeville and Broadway. Now, a producer, director or actor is likely to have been schooled - and then film-schooled - to high levels, and can rely on a potential audience of similar sophistication. ... Admittedly, this revolution of intelligence is not all-encompassing: films are being released ... that are as stupid as movies have ever been. As with wealth, education and healthcare, the gap between the top and bottom tiers is getting ever wider. But our luck is that, in this area, good and bad cost the same to the consumer." (01/02/2008)

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Berlin is to hold a referendum on whether the Tempelhof Airport, located within the city, should be closed. "No other European city could hold such a plebiscite," Jutta Kramm says. "If you asked Parisians, Londoners or Romans if they'd like an airport smack in the middle of town, they'd say 'No thanks.' But Berliners are different. They hold a referendum on noise and dirt in the city centre, and huge financial loss. After all, that's what they would get with the continued usage of Tempelhof Airport. ... But Berlin is not like any other large city. It was the capital of the Cold War, a city on the front lines, and an island. No one took things for granted. You had to take a stand: For America and its way of life, or against. For Socialism and the Party, or against. That's the only way to explain why East Berliners are so upset by the razing of the Palace of the Republic; and it also explains why many West Berliners cling to their Airlift airport." (01/02/2008)

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Finland's capital, Helsinki, is considering the introduction of a city toll, like that of Stockholm. The Finnish paper points out practical problems: "Why shouldn't Helsinki quickly introduce something that's already part of life in Stockholm and London? Well, for one thing, the access roads to those cities are organized differently from ours. They have intersections where cameras can register passing cars. It's not possible to adapt this to the labyrinth of our inner city. There are just too many short cuts. True, it would be possible to install a seamless satellite monitoring system. But it will be many years before such technology is up to par." (01/02/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Finland