In Germany the Bundestag (the lower house of the parliament) has approved the ratification of the EU reform treaty, however Peter Gauweiler of the CSU (Christian Social Union) has lodged a complaint against the treaty before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe. Ansgar Graw welcomes the treaty as a step down the road to a common European identity: "In this case the saying 'less is sometimes more' is not just an empty phrase but a reference to realpolitik and the will of the people of Europe. However, the treaty still has a long way to go before it's signed and sealed. A plebiscite will be held in Ireland and the court in Karlsruhe will have to reach a decision about Gauweiler's complaint. It's good that this case has been brought before court because given the fundamental significance the treaty will have for future policies, which was confirmed by all parties except the Left Party in the Bundestag yesterday, it's important that the question of transferring further powers to Brussels be settled before court. Europe needs clarity to win the trust of its citizens." (25/04/2008)

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The Danish parliament has ratified the EU reform treaty. The daily laments this "silent" ratification process and contends that a discussion about the treaty would have "opened a window" in Denmark. "This would have been good for the vote on [Denmark's EU] reservations. With his hush-hush strategy, the Prime Minister has risked arousing the electorate's suspicion and making them want to slow things down if there is a referendum this year on one or several of the reservations." Denmark wants its current special arrangements regarding monetary policy and defence policy to be repealed. "Much could have been gained if the government had used enlightened and positive political arguments in favour of the EU treaty - in particular greater faith in the European project. Ratifying the treaty without a referendum has unfortunately brought the EU debate back to square one." (25/04/2008)

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The process of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon is still underway in Lithuania. Jonas Vaiscunas comments: "Our government obviously considers its citizens to be too immature regarding international affairs. So far it has avoided any kind of public discussion about the Lisbon Treaty. Neither the elected politicians nor political scientists have made any effort to explain it to the people. ... And this although in surveys 73 percent of respondents claimed they didn't know anything about the new treaty and 27 percent had heard about it but 51 percent of them felt they weren't adequately informed. ... Who says we have to ratify this treaty at all? Isn't it time we asked how this situation fits in with Article 1 of our constitution, which calls for a referendum in such cases?" (25/04/2008)

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In Paris and Berlin much is being done to commemorate the year 1968, but in Bulgaria - apart from a purely academic discussion - there is silence on the subject. Georgi Gospodinov finds this a pity: "At the time there was also silence about the events of 1968 in Bulgaria. The explanation is simple, but this silence must be analysed. Bulgaria's 1968 was a non-event. I mean this in the deeper sense of the word, as an interruption, a disruption of the established order and of the normal course of events. The genuine and unpredictable events of 1956, 1968 and 1980 in Central and Eastern Europe undermined and threatened the social system. In comparison with the events in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, Bulgaria's case is a sad exception. ... Yet I still insist that non-events play an important role at both a human and a social level. Even a non-event has consequences for the future." (25/04/2008)

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Olivier Meuwly, a historian of political thought, studies the memory of the many revolts that took place around the world in 1968. "The '68 paradox is confronted with itself. At the same time an incubator of liberty, which everyone has definitively, at one time or another, benefited from, 68 was also a wave of destabilisation that struck at the standards that governed the world of yesteryear. From this came a second, antagonistic reaction that disturbs us at the dawn of the 21st Century. On one side, no one wants to go backwards, and everyone, in one way or another praises the gains of 68. On the other, many (often the same people!) are uncomfortable with this liberty, so difficult to manage, with this materialism that is consumerist, libertarian and individualist that they adore... and abhor. Thus, with its unique matrix of meaning, a contradiction surges forth from this paradigmatic event that was '68!" (24/04/2008)

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In an interview conducted by Mathilde Blottiere, Austrian film director Michael Haneke says that American cinema makes "violence a product for mass-consumption. ... [The] loss of standards gets a little worse everyday in the media orgy of brutal images: a real pornography of violence. With the development of communication in every direction, it's even more present today. And art has not been spared. For many filmmakers, exploiting the distracting qualities of violence has become the pinnacle of cool. ... Violence has always profoundly revolted me ... How can we revel in the suffering of others, even on the screen? I don't understand. As long as this unhealthy fascination exists, I won't stop speaking out about it and opposing dominant cinema." (23/04/2008)

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The financial weekly considers the behaviour of new EU countries. "They seem to hope that EU membership will work miracles of its own, curing such ills as entrenched corruption, organised crime, judicial ineffectiveness and economic backwardness - all without their having to make painful reforms at home. ... In every one of the eight central and east European countries that joined the EU on May 1st 2004, reforms have since stuttered or halted. Anti-corruption drives in the Baltic countries have stalled. ... It is often said that the EU's enlargement policy has been the most potent tool yet devised to entice its neighbours along the road to free-market democracy... . But the corollary is a loss of influence after a country actually joins. The pattern of intensive reform to qualify, followed by a let-up in the process once membership is achieved, is too common to be mere happenstance." (24/04/2008)

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A year ago, youths of Russian origin rioted in the Estonian capital of Tallinn in protest at the removal of a Soviet war memorial known as the "bronze statue". The Estonian daily examines what progress has been made since then: "Although Estonia has been able to improve its position in foreign policy, it remains questionable whether the country has succeeded regarding integration. Following the riots caused by the removal of the statue in April 2007 politicians made all kinds of promises: Russian TV channels, more consideration for the Russian community and talks. Now it's more or less certain that there won't be any Russian TV channels, and the programmes of the Estonian TV station ETV won't be given Russian subtitles." (25/04/2008)

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared on French television April 24th to account for his first year in power. "Was it really necessary to impose on France 90 minutes of repetitive arguments because Nicolas Sarkozy is sinking in the polls, even among those who voted for him?", asks Jean-Marcel Bougureau. "Confidence in him has been broken and his presidential words ring hollow. Was it really so important to bring together five journalists who all, except for Yves Calvi, allowed the President to speak with impunity without challenging him on the most dubious declarations? Wouldn't it have been possible to ask him questions on the perverse effect of the inheritance law that encourages an investment economy and doesn't reward work? ... Wouldn't it be possible, faced with his sudden modesty, to ask him - since his recognised having 'made mistakes' - what these mistakes actually were?" (25/04/2008)

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Juan Antonio Herrero Brasas, a Spanish ethics and public policy professor at the University of California, inquires whether José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's new Spanish government, which has a female majority, influences international perceptions of Spain. "The Spanish have a reputation for being macho, to such a point that the Spanish word 'machismo' has been adopted into English and other foreign languages. What a terrible image of our culture! It has been established, all the same, that women are not more oppressed in Spain than in other western countries. ... For example, legislation in several countries has recently been modified to allow women to keep their names after marriage: in this way, they can enjoy a right that Spanish women have always had. [Zapatero's decision] is in no way a radical or baffling step in our society." (25/04/2008)

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"Benedict XVI, now three years into his papacy, has already confounded his enemies and delighted his admirers in a pontificate that glitters beyond all expectations," writes columnist John Waters. "Benedict was, by the secular media analysis, a stop-gap and a throwback, a 'reactionary', a 'right-winger', an obscurantist. But what has emerged is ... a man who in his lifetime has watched mankind lurch between great good and the greatest evil, and seeks to reconcile these observations with the truths he has inherited. ... Benedict's project is the restoration to western culture of an integrated concept of reason, the re-separation of the metaphysical from the physical. The unarmed coup of the 1960s, which sought to install scientific rationalism as the guiding light of the age, has failed to convince even its own adherents.” (25/04/2008)

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The British weekly The Economist has predicted that by the year 2020 Romania's economy will be as developed as that of Italy. Andrei Postelnicu comments: "This prognosis reminds us that Romania's current course of progress is chaotic, lacking in strategy and clear measures. Its accession to NATO was the result of the geopolitical situation. Its EU accession ended in a political compromise regarding economic and juristic criteria which the whole world knew we couldn't fulfil. ... According to the Economist, we now have the chance to stop oscillating between the foolish notion that we are the centre of the universe and our image of ourselves as eternal victims. ... Spain caught up with Italian standards in 2006 - with the help of hundreds of thousands of Romanian immigrants. So why shouldn't we be able to achieve this before 2020?" (25/04/2008)

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Columnist Edwy Plenel considers that Aimé Césaire, the French writer who died April 17th, had a message that still rings true today. "Césaire represents the revolt of the universal against the western tradition that betrayed it. Against a Europe that betrayed itself. Against a civilisation that became barbaric. Against a culture that dishonours itself. ... To read Césaire today is to understand that the refusal of colonialism is still important; it's a compass for our troubled and uncertain times. What was, and still is, in the balance, if not humanism, universalism and the worries of the world? ... And if, far from appearing to be ridiculous, [his words] haven't lost any of their meaning, their force, it's because they ring true in the present, from Iraq to Afghanistan via the Middle East, with this North American banalisation and official sanctioning of torture at the heart of a new civilising crusade... ." (25/04/2008)

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A street in Prague is to be named after Anna Politkovskaya. The government-critical Russian journalist was murdered in October 2006 in Moscow. Zbyněk Petráček applauds the proposal made by the Czech relief organisation "People in Need": "We would be repaying our debt to the cities of Western Europe who named their streets after Jan Palach. ... The best place for an Anna Politkovskaya street would be the road leading to the Russian embassy in Prague. Moscow can't really kick up a big fuss about it. It wouldn't be the street that is a discredit to Russia but the fact that Politkovskaya's murder still hasn't been solved." (25/04/2008)

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"Pygmalion is returning to the London stage in a production for the Old Vic by Peter O'Toole... . Pygmalion is, however, a melancholy reminder that phonetically, England is not the place it once was", writes Melanie McDonagh. "The first Act has a brilliant scene in which Henry Higgins is surrounded by an angry crowd and identifies in turn exactly where the people who address him come from. ... Is there any place where such a feat would still be possible ? Certainly not London, where the accents of Hoxton, Earl's Court and Lisson Grove are indistinguishable... . Of course, the old bores in linguistics departments will maintain that English is a vibrant, ever-changing language. So it is. But the fact that the multifarious accents of [George Bernard] Shaw's time - including his own Protestant Irish diction - have disappeared ... is a change for the worse." (25/04/2008)

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All available articles from » Melanie McDonagh