The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung doubts that the EU deploying a new military mission to the Congo will improve the situation there. "One has ... to ask whether [a European military intervention] could do anything to change the misery the people there have been suffering for years now. There is already a UN troop (Monuc) of 15,000 men in the Congo, around a third of which are deployed in the conflict region. One can accuse them of incompetence; but one thing is for certain: a European emergency mission made up of a thousand soldiers will not be able to rectify the unbearable situation in the country. Whether it's a struggle over mineral resources or an ethnic conflict, it's Africans who are doing the killing. Only the Africans can put an end to this atrocity."  (31/10/2008)

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The promised EU emergency aid to Congo is insufficient, writes Trouw newspaper: "Diplomatic pressure on the parties must be raised considerably. Even if Rwanda denies all participation in the current combat, there will be no solution to this brutal conflict without a constructive stance on Rwanda's part. In earlier settlements President Paul Kagame promised he would help with the disarmament, and possibly even with the return of the Rwandan Hutu rebels. That could do a lot towards difusing the conflict. The UK and the US should play a role here as partners and providers of development aid. But firm negotiations, if possible with an authoritative mediator from the region, are the only way out of this living hell." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Africa, » Europe

In view of Belgium's colonial past the daily De Standaard considers Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht's announcement that the country would participate in an EU mission to the Congo "a risky turn" in Belgian foreign policy: "In the aftermath of the tragedy with the Belgian parachute units [UN Blue Helmets] in Rwanda people remembered that there is an unwritten law according to which former colonial powers are better off not sending soldiers to ex-colonies because it's too risky. Besides, the EU mission only makes sense if the structural causes of the violence in the eastern Congo are dealt with. ... The Congolese government's army should protect the people instead of terrorising them and finally make good on its promise to disarm the Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Congo. Reinforcements should be sent to the UN's Monuc peace-keeping troop so it can properly fulfil its mandate, which is already as comprehensive as it needs to be." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Belgium, » Africa, » Europe
All available articles from » Bart Beirlant

The Irish Examiner believes the international community should intervene: "Nobody who saw the savagery of Rwanda's genocide 14 years ago, in which half a million Tutsis were slaughtered, will forget the dreadful scenes. The return of terrible instability to the region, the escalating refugee situation, the collapse of a UN-brokered ceasefire and the rebel siege of the Congo's eastern provincial capital Goma over a $5 billion dollar deal that gives China access to the country's vast mineral riches in exchange for a railway and highway network all conspire to create a frightening scenario. There may be a world economic crisis and there may be a presidential election in America, but the international community must do more to try to ensure that the dreadful slaughter of 1994 is not repeated." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Africa

The Basque terrorist organisation ETA has exploded a car bomb in a car park in front of the main building of the private University of Navarre in Pamplona. It was only thanks to pure luck that no one was killed. The daily El País comments on ETA's strategy in Navarre, the Basque country's neighbouring region: "ETA is acting in the name of a goal that moves further out of its reach with every terrible attack like this one against students and professors. It is clinging to violence as a tool even though it's counterproductive to the objective that in theory it seeks to achieve: the defence of the Basque identity in Navarre. The weakness of ETA is thus first and foremost a political weakness, and it is no coincidence that unconditional support for violence among Basque nationalist voters has sunk in the past 12 months from 20 percent to 2 percent." (31/10/2008)

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

After a young woman was stoned to death in Somalia the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten deplores the lack of protest from Muslims: "Where is the statement by Somali citizens living in Denmark in which they distance themselves from this barbaric execution which tarnishes [their image] too? In fact, where are the protests from the international public and moderate and peace-loving Muslims who so often have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding for democratic rules but fail to make use of it? ... That Sharia [Islamic Law] is practised in certain Muslim areas in Denmark and that the UK has introduced administrative Sharia law courts whose judgements are legally binding for example in family matters in several UK cities ... is not only irreconcilable with the principle of equality before the law on which the West's system of law is based. It is also directly detrimental to the process of integration." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Denmark, » Africa, » Global

The Romanian senate decided this week that the former nomenklatura of the Romanian Communist Party is immune to investigation by the CNSAS, the authority responsible for reviewing Securitate files. Cotidianul newspaper is outraged: "The senate, the chamber responsible for decision-making in the Romanian parliament, has passed a bill on the CNSAS that runs counter to all logic and common sense and which ignores the suffering endured by Romanians for half a century. ... For example, the CNSAS would now attest that [former communist President] Nicolae Ceauşescu did not collaborate with the Securitate, although the repression was a direct result of his personal instructions. Everyone with even a vague knowledge of the recent past knows that the Securitate did not act on its own initiative but closely followed the instructions of the communist nomenklatura. ... It would be hard to imagine a more blatant 'not guilty' verdict for the decision-makers of that criminal regime." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » History, » Romania
All available articles from » Dorin Petrisor

Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated yesterday in Italy against the education reform passed by the senate and budget cuts in education. La Repubblica newspaper puts its finger on the problem: the short-term, precarious situation of employees in the schools and universities: "Education Minister [Mariastella] Gelmini has managed to bring together mothers and children, students and teachers. She has put an end to the generation conflict that was crippling this country. The university reform is not a reform at all, but simply the passive implementation of Finance Minister [Giulio] Tremonti's budget cuts. And it has revived the student movement. The demonstrations were directed against Gelmini. But the true enemy is the system of short-term contracts in the education sector. 87,000 jobs will be cut, with no regard for merit or quality. And the victims are the employees. ... The students, for their part, condemn the lack of new posts for young professors and demand new research programmes." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Science / Research, » Italy
All available articles from » Tito Boeri

Commenting on the financial crisis in Russia, the renowned economist Lord Robert Skidelsky argues in the Financial Times that Russia needs to regard itself as an emerging economy and lower its geopolitical ambitions in order to win back the confidence of the markets. "The Russian stock market has lost 70 per cent of its value this year. The commodity prices that spearheaded its boom are now falling. The easy credit money from the west that fuelled it has now fled. Russia has failed to diversify its economy and its politics have long made investors nervous. A confrontation with reality is long overdue. ... Russia carries a heavy burden of political risk. This is the real economic legacy of the Putin years. Mr [Vladimir] Putin [former Russian president] does not understand the need for a degree of consistency between economic and foreign policy: or rather the reconciliation he has sought has been based on Russia's energy windfall. If this has now ended, as seems likely, the key assumption of his politics – that Russia can use its energy power to boost its world power without paying much attention to the sensitivities of anyone but the Russian electorate – has been destroyed. ... Russia needs to scale down its geopolitical ambition to its real weight – that of an emerging economy with only 3 per cent of the world's gross domestic product and a quarter of America's living standard ...The Putin era is over but [President Dmitry] Medvedev's has not begun. This is the real Russian crisis." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Economic Policy, » Russia
All available articles from » Robert Skidelsky

Wolfgang Roth writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the different standards for poor and rich countries concerning environmental protection: "As long as the rich states cannot show that it is possible to introduce a more environmentally friendly model for economic growth and prosperity they have no right to make demands on the rest of the world. In the end no moral argument can justify some countries having a greater right to pollute the atmosphere than others. On a per capita basis, Germany produces at least three times as much harmful carbon emissions as China. And America produces at least five times as much. A trading system that would allow everyone on earth the same contingent is still a Utopia. Such a scheme would involve slowing both climate change and population growth, and that is not possible without combating poverty, the education gap and discrimination against women. If global warming is to be limited to two degrees, China, India, Europe and the US must agree on the same level of emissions. This would mean a sharp reduction of greenhouse gases for the classical industrial states and a limited increase for the others." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Environmental Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Wolfgang Roth

In an opinion piece for the daily Le Monde, the Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme stresses the need for a European emergency fund: "At the end of September Belgium's financial sector was rocked by serious turmoil. Fortis, the country's leading bank, Dexia, its third-largest bank, and an insurance company were all hit by the fallout from the international financial crisis. ... In these moments of danger in which major banks were threatened with bankruptcy we felt an absolute need for European cooperation. ... We must consider setting up a European emergency fund that could be used to purchase illiquid securities, recapitalise banks and guarantee loans between banks. ... Europe is gradually becoming the sole European regulator. The current cooperation between national supervisory authorities, even if it has ... become stronger thanks to monthly meetings, is just an initial phase in this long process that should culminate in a supervisory system that is at the same time pan-European and decentralised." (30/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Yves Leterme

According to the left-liberal weekly newspaper 168 óra, Iceland will be fundamentally changed by the collapse of its banks and the drop in value of the krona. "Just like its current plight, Iceland owed its former prosperity to its banks. ... The Icelanders had grown accustomed to prosperity but now they have to be bailed out. The central banks of neighbouring Denmark and Norway have already provided a modest sum in emergency aid. Russia, too, surprisingly announced an unhoped-for loan [of five billion dollars]. Ultimately however the decisive help will come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ... Whatever happens, the Icelanders will have to accept that the prosperity generated by their banks is a thing of the past. What they are left with is their fisheries, tourism and perhaps trade. It may well be that Iceland goes from being the most expensive country in Western Europe to the cheapest - and becomes a popular destination for international shopping sprees." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Denmark, » Norway, » Russia, » Western Europe
All available articles from » Endre Aczél

The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita has published a government concept for a museum dedicated to World War II and endowed with a "universal" character. Pawel Lisicki criticises the initiators of the project for failing to pay due tribute to the suffering of the Polish people: "The problem is that 'universality' can have two meanings. Firstly it can mean 'very widespread', 'generalised' and therefore inevitably abstract. This would mean bringing down the representation to the lowest common denominator. That would be what everyone experienced during the Second World War - Germans, Poles, Russians and Jews alike. ... That would be a time in which all Europeans were victims of two totalitarian regimes. Then there is a second meaning for 'universal': 'Universal' in the sense of being true, profound, original and unrepeatable. In this case one does not look for a formula that gives expression to the experiences of all those involved in the war but strives to draw on one's own experience. ... Therefore it is good that the authors of the project want to give the museum a universal character. Yet they cannot fail to incite doubts by expressly avoiding the depiction of the suffering and glory of Poland's battle." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Exhibitions / Museums, » Cultural Policy, » Poland, » Europe
All available articles from » Pawel Lisicki

The 12th edition of the German Language Theatre Festival begins today in Prague with Bertolt Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera", performed by the company of the Berliner Ensemble theatre. The business newspaper Hospodářské noviny applauds the growing presence of German art and culture in the Czech capital: "In 1996 when the writer Pavel Kohout came up with the idea of bringing German theatre back to Prague, it seemed anything but realistic. Today German artists come to Prague on a regular basis, giving audiences a lively taste of the natural bonds between the two countries and their common cultural roots. German theatre and authors have become a common feature in the Czech Republic thanks to this festival, but also to other cultural projects like Zipp [the initiative for funding German-Czech cultural projects]. The work of theatre director Dušan Pařízek at the 'Komedie' theatre also deserves high praise. It has staged high-quality productions of works by a remarkable number of German authors." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Stage, » Cultural Policy, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Marie Reslová

In the business paper Les Echos members of the Paris faction of the ruling UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) in France praise the "Grand Paris" urban development project: "The 'Grand Paris' is above all an idea, a perspective - a perspective of time and space in the service of more than 10 million 'Grand Parisians'. It is the reason for which the head of state [Nicolas Sarkozy] quite rightly desires a strong, original and realistic project for Paris, a project for a big metropolis in the 21st century. The Grand Paris project aims to fulfil the expectations and solve the problems of the Grand Parisians in the areas of living space, work, environment, transport, education, public services and social affairs. Thanks to the Grand Paris project our city will be placed in an international context, for everyone is familiar with the centralising tendencies of our country. Therefore we are convinced that the Grand Paris project is perhaps the opportunity we have been seeking to reconsider the boundaries and identity of our capital city." (31/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Architecture / Cities, » France
All available articles from » Jean-François Lamour, » Laurence Douvin, » Jean-Jacques Giannesini