"Whether unskilled labourers or trained experts, for most of the workers from the new member states the message until 2011 is: Keep Out!" Sven Astheimer writes, adding: "This is a disastrous message. As if the current discussion about labour shortages didn't exist, the doors to Germany's fortress-like job market remain firmly closed. ... The Federal Employment Office hasn't even been able to provide enough seasonal harvest workers since the regular ones from Poland decided Great Britain was a better place for seasonal work because they're made more welcome there and receive higher wages. The exact opposite is true: foreign workers help to boost value and prosperity in Germany." (28/04/2008)

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Marek Magierowski accuses the German government of populism: "Angela Merkel's government plans to take full advantage of the transitional period agreed on during the membership negotiations even though it could easily afford to shorten it. And what's more, the German economy needs it to be shortened because it's suffering from a labour deficit. Unfortunately, the ruling CDU has once again bowed to the pressure of the trade unions who would seal off Germany's borders entirely if they could to prevent newcomers from the East from 'stealing the Germans' work and bread'. As we can see, even the cleverest politicians in the most developed democracies aren't above employing the tactics of populism." (28/04/2008)

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Miriam Zsilleová criticises the plans not to lift job market restrictions in Germany until 2011: "There are no economic arguments to support this course of action. Unemployment is going down in Germany yet workers from the new EU member states are still being discriminated against, despite the fact that the freedom to choose where you work is one of the Union's fundamental rights and was one of the main reasons for joining the EU for the new members. ... The decision is a purely political one. Germany votes in 2009. The Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats will battle against each other and against the populist Left Party, which is busily accumulating votes among the dissatisfied at the moment." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Eastern Europe
All available articles from » Miriam Zsilleová

In an interview with Philippe Regnier Kosovo-born Albanian writer Skënder Sherifi talks about his happiness that "the Kosovar people have realised their great dream [of independence]. They feel independent in heart and mind. It is an affirmation that 'we exist'. But reality will catch up with them. Economic and social problems will rear their heads. I see no other way out than joining the European Union as quickly as possible in order to assuage nationalist feeling. Everybody must be put in the same boat and close the book of ancestral hate. Young people can do it, even though young Serbs are far from having closed the book of Serbian nationalist mythology. ... Young people need a breath of fresh air, from Europe, to help them out of their hole. In Pristina, Tirana and Belgrade it is like the twelve labours of Hercules just to get a visa! Young people all feel as if they are in an open air prison. People should be allowed to move freely!" (26/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Serbia, » Kosovo
All available articles from » Skënder Sherifi, » Philippe Regnier

In an interview with Filip Memches, Mykola Riabchuk, a Ukrainian writer and editor-in-chief of the Kiev-based monthly Krytyka, warns the Polish government not to pin its hopes on an improvement in relations with Russia. "I don't believe there will be a thaw in Polish-Russian relations, simply because it wouldn't be in Russia's interest. Russia needs Poland in the role of the rebel who can be punished while the rest of the world looks on. Poland is to play the same role among the countries of the former Eastern Bloc as Ukraine did among the former Soviet republics. ... The problem lies in the nature of Polish-Russian relations. Russian politicians take their business partners in Western Europe seriously because it's in their interest to do so. Poland is superfluous in this constellation. Moscow doesn't need friends in its former zone of influence; it needs countries that it can humiliate." (26/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Poland, » Ukraine, » Russia
All available articles from » Mykola Rjabtschuk, » Filip Memches

In December 2007 the health of 85-year-old Portuguese writer and Nobel literature laureate, Jose Saramago, took a critical turn for the worse. He now feels much better and attended in Lisbon the opening of an exhibition devoted to him on April 23rd. In an interview with Juan Cruz he emphasises the ties which bind him to his country. "I am very critical about Portugal's social and political situation. I believe that people's morale is very low, as if they had given up on the future. We are far too sheep-like. But it is my country. A few years ago I was asked what kind of relationship I had with my country. I answered: 'Iike what this country has made me.' It is not the most beautiful, or the cleverest, or the most inventive country, but it is my country. ... Basically, the question is very simple: I can criticise Portugal and, at the same time, wonder who I would be if I hadn't been born here." (24/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Portugal
All available articles from » José Saramago, » Juan Cruz

According to the Sunday Business Post's latest monthly tracking poll, support for the Lisbon Treaty has fallen in Ireland from 43% in February to 35% today among people entitled to vote in the referendum (June 12th). Tom McGurk laments the sheer complexity of the treaty. "Here we go again: it's European déja vu time. Once more, we are facing into a monumental political decision that will define our democracy for generations to come. ... Once more, we are being asked to trust those who apparently know better than us: the political classes and the 'Eurotocracy'. In the meantime, as the argument rages on and on, don't for God's sake let anyone mention the European Constitution…. Lisbon represents the final confused consensus of over 20 governments all seeking simultaneously to do two opposite things: to create a new governing structure for Europe, while at the same time covering their political backs. ... Is it any wonder how it tastes, given the number of cooks of this broth?" (27/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Ireland, » Europe
All available articles from » Tom McGurk

"Precisely those countries that have profited most from membership in the European Union are showing the least understanding for the advance of its institutions," Christoph Prantner writes. "In Austria, the winner of eastwards expansion, there is a deep-rooted and diffuse aversion to the reform treaty. In Ireland, there's no telling which way the only referendum on the treaty will go - despite the fact that in economic terms the famous 'Celtic tiger' would have been little more than a tame kitten without the generous funding from Brussels. ... This is testimony to the fact that many Europeans still haven't come to terms with the reality of a globalised world. They prefer to cuddle up to their 19th century nation states, which are assuming an increasingly folkloric character in the context of the transnational political concepts of the 21st century." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Ireland, » Austria
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French-based Tunisian journalist Wicem Souissi took advantage of Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Tunisia to consider the French president's idea of making Tunis the capital of the future Union for the Mediterranean. "Should one be for or against locating a European institution, and therefore introducing European values, in a country which treads them underfoot? ... Establishing a permanent Euro-Mediterranean body in the middle of Tunis on a long-term basis is a matchless opportunity. Introducing the Trojan horse of democracy in broad daylight is chance to bring authoritarian regimes to learn to cultivate the garden of freedom for the people. ... The Euro-Mediterranean partnership process would thus enter a mindset that is different from the one that currently holds sway: the economic side, which is the initial driver, would be offset by a concrete democratic side." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Africa, » Europe
All available articles from » Wicem Souissi

Journalist Giuseppe D'Avanzo takes another look at the Naples trash' crisis, where rubbish is still piling up in neighbourhoods across the city. "The countdown has begun. There are 69 days to go before July 5th. Only 69 days before high summer, the heat, and a new waste emergency, a new urban crisis, a social catastrophe which, this time, might not spare us infectious diseases worthy of centuries gone-by. Neapolitans are trying to ward off ill fate. They are superstitious and think that they can magically overcome misfortune. But there is no such thing as magic, no miracle in sight ... . There are very matter-of-fact predictions of a new crisis which will be worse than the first because it will unfold with temperatures ranging between 32 and 36 degrees centigrade." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Italy
All available articles from » Giuseppe d'Avanzo

Montjuic Castle on the mountains overlooking Barcelona was the last place in the city still to have a statue of General Franco on horseback, albeit in a room closed to the public. The Catalan daily reveals that it was recently moved and is now in a municipal warehouse. "Just when there are calls for revision of the historical circumstances leading up to the Spanish Civil War... debate now begins over whether and how the signs and symbols of fascism should be preserved," comments the paper. "It is certainly not a fresh controversy, but the news we publish today prompts us to think once more about how a democratic society should treat the remains of an era that is, thankfully, bygone ... .Tributes to Franquism are much better off in a cupboard. It is the only way ...  that we can turn the page on an episode in our history which we must remember but not immortalise." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » History, » Spain

Thomas Fuster reports that Slovakia is likely to introduce the euro in January 2009 since it now fulfils the Maastricht criteria, but he points to the risk of inflation: "It's a source of concern that in the process of catching up economically and experiencing rapid growth, the poorer EU states have been able to control inflation thanks largely to the increasing value of their currencies. Once they introduce the single currency this option is no longer open to them. ... That those who want to protect Europe's currencies are giving this matter higher priority than a few years ago probably has to do with what has happened in Slovenia since the euro was introduced there in 2007: although Slovenia's per capita income is much higher than Slovakia's, its rate of inflation has accelerated to around double the level it is in other Eurozone countries." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Financial Markets, » Slovakia, » Eastern Europe
All available articles from » Thomas Fuster

Columnist Michel Guerrin looks back at the controversy sparked by the exhibition of photographs on Occupied France. "Visitors can view 'pretty' colour pictures of a happy Paris, without being clearly told that André Zucca worked for the French edition of the Nazi magazine 'Signal' ... It is impossible to be neutral or passive faced when looking at pictures which are neither. With André Zucca that is blatantly the case. It is easy for the exhibition's organisers to retort that the colour pictures were not published, so there was no need to show 'Signal'. But the exhibition's focus on mere contemplation is an aberration. Pictures are classified by neighbourhood and lack explicit captions, as if they were Doisneau photographs of a newly happy post-war period. ... The attitude of the organisers' of this Zucca colour show is typical of those who see photographs merely as pictures of sleeping beauties. Yet because of its strange relationship with reality, photography is as live as a hand grenade which can go off at any moment." (26/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Exhibitions / Museums, » History, » France
All available articles from » Michel Guerrin

Writer Christa Wolf writes about the book titled 'Überlebnis' (survival experience) which Ulla Berkéwicz, director of the renowned Suhrkamp publishing house, has written about the death of her husband Siegfried Unseld. "What we imagine actually happens. The figure walks onto the stage and seeks death. Death comes in five acts. The fear of death unites the audience. The audience is united with its heroes in its fear of death. This is a story about dying in five acts. The fear of death is the driving force behind our society in its reckless quest for fun. We want to keep death at arm's length. In the pages of this book, the storyteller deals with death from close up and without protection." (28/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Germany
All available articles from » Christa Wolf

David Wagner highlights an inconsistency in the Luxembourg government's thinking on immigration. "Since the law governing naturalisation was reformed, certain people have been harping on about the supposedly imperative need to master the national language. According to them it is no longer sufficient to master French and German, the two other administrative languages. There lies the rub: what makes us different from many other countries, is that Luxembourgish is just one of the languages spoken here. People can live here without speaking Luxembourgish quite simply because Luxembourgers are polyglots. In which language do we learn to read? In German. What are the languages of schooling? French and German. And if this article had not been written in French, it would have been in German - not in Luxembourgish, even though it is the vehicular language used by this publications' editors and most of its readers. (24/04/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Luxembourg
All available articles from » David Wagner