The central problem is European dependence on Russian energy supplies, writes Corriere della Sera newspaper: "The political sky over Nice is leaden today. Europe's thirst for energy can hardly be ignored, and looms over the negotiation table like a teetering boulder. The EU is trying to free its gas pipelines from the claws of the Russian bear, while Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is trying to do just the opposite. The EU wants to be able to supply its own needs as soon as the Kremlin shuts off the tap, and is striving to create an emergency energy network comprising Dutch wind energy and Norwegian hydropower as well as the trans-Sahara gas pipeline from Nigeria and gas from Azerbaijan. The 27 EU countries import 61 percent of their energy requirements from Russia, while seven, among them the Baltic countries, are completely dependent on Moscow. This situation is too risky." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Luigi Offeddu

The German daily Frankfurter Rundschau writes that the EU's influence in the Caucasus is limited: "There is no alternative to dialogue with Russia, but in the case of the Caucasus sooner or later Europeans will have to acknowledge that their influence is limited. Diplomats claim that the sticking points, including the situation in Georgia, are constantly being brought up in the partnership talks with Russia. But with all due respect for the officials in Brussels, Europe's ministers and its heads of government: the Russians are not likely to be very impressed when EU representatives routinely water down their criticism of conditions in the Caucasus. The assumption that Europe can restore Georgia's territorial integrity through sheer perseverance is likely to prove nothing but a pious hope." (14/11/2008)

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"It is time that Brussels and Washington stopped pretending nothing happened in the Caucasus in August", writes Delo newspaper. "Sooner or later they must do what Russia did on August 26: recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This is probably inevitable in the long term. The only way for Georgia to regain control over the two provinces would be a new war, which Georgia must win of course. But in view of the presence of the Russian army, which showed in August that it has no intention of accepting such a solution, this is virtually impossible. By formalising the new reality as quickly as possible, the West would ultimately release Georgia from its agony as well. If the Georgian leadership managed to adopt standards close to those of Western institutions instead of worrying about regaining control over the provinces, the country would certainly not be left for too long before Nato's door, and could express its reservations as a full member of the EU in Brussels." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Polona Frelih

Redefining relations with Russia will be one of the first tasks for newly elected US president Barack Obama, writes the daily Berlingske Tidende, adding that this won't be easy. "The course that Russia is pursuing is becoming less and less democratic. The parliamentary system has been overruled. What Russia has now is pretty much a one-party system. [Vladimir] Putin's party, United Russia, controls two-thirds of the seats in parliament. ... In this context it's odd that EU states stand so far apart when it comes to exerting pressure on Russia to move towards democracy. Certain EU states appear to be more interested in regular gas supplies from Russia than in the question of what Russia is planning. This could pose a problem for Obama. He needs the backing of the Europeans, but that requires a united Europe. And there is no united Europe as far as relations with Russia are concerned." (14/11/2008)

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The European Commission presented a new strategy for securing Europe's energy supplies on Thursday. The daily newspaper Postimees praises the new strategy, which is intended to strengthen Europe's position vis-à-vis gas suppliers like Russia: "Up until now it was mostly the case that it was up to each individual EU member state to work out how and where it got its energy from. The new strategy, on the other hand, can be summed up as follows: the member states build up a common supply network and exercise joint control over consumption. For Estonia and the Baltic states the implementation of this plan would represent a huge step forwards. If, for instance, Russia decided to turn off the tap or increase prices without justification, the others would step in to help through the common network. True, it will be years before this strategy is actually implemented, but the important thing is that this project is not allowed to fail owing to the national interests of individual members." (14/11/2008)

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A trial over police attacks on antiglobalists in Diaz School during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 has come to an end after three years. More than half of the 29 people accused of abuse of authority and criminal assault have been acquitted. In La Repubblica newspaper Giuseppe D'Avanzo has harsh words for the judgement. "Just like in the Bolzaneto trial [another location of violence during the G8 summit], this is a poor judgement. Above all it is careless and dangerous. ... Just as with Bolzaneto, the judges should have cleared up how and on whose authority a legal black hole can exist in a democracy where the rule of law and constitutional guarantees are annulled and naked life ... is subjected to arbitrary and bloodthirsty violence. ... Seven years after the attacks that were justified as emergency measures by the government [of current prime minister Silvio Berlusconi] back then, nothing has changed. Far from soothing the situation, the judgements on Diaz and Bolzaneto only disturb us. Rather than healing wounds, they only make them bleed more." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Giuseppe d'Avanzo

With an eye to their own parliamentary elections in 2010, the Swedish parties followed the US election campaign closely and now plan to make more use of electronic media. "But the parties are forgetting a few important aspects," writes Abraham Staifo in the daily Göteborgs-Posten. "A blog can't make a policy and YouTube can't make a man. ... The parties' greatest miscalculation is that they are attributing too much importance to the blogosphere as a place for winning votes. ... What is important for Sweden's parties is not which medium they use, but what message they want to convey. Moreover, it would be wiser to take conditions in Sweden into account rather than becoming fixated on those in the US. Sure, young voters can be best reached through the Internet. And the party that has the best chance of winning is the one that can pull its own [Barack] Obama out of its sleeve. On the other hand, copies are never as good as the originals." (14/11/2008)

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Diário Económico writes that in changing the EU marketing requirements for a number of different fruit and vegetables, the EU Commission is considering only the interests of producers and not those of consumers: "Making the sale of fruit and vegetables dependent on size and form has led to enormous waste and price increases for these products. So what? Does this now mean the end of this EU guideline? No, not at all. The EU Commission now formats Europe according to the size and shape of votes and the interests of the large producing countries. Instead of doing away with the requirements completely, now only a few select products will no longer be subject to its dictatorship. And this despite the fact that abolishing this guideline would lower prices considerably for consumers. But why should Brussels be interested in the costs to consumers when these prices bring in so many millions for producers and middlemen?" (13/11/2008)

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All available articles from » João Paulo Guerra

In the weekly Dilema Veche, Mircea Vasilescu analyses the effects of the global financial crisis in Western and Eastern Europe. "The borderlines between 'old' and 'new' Europe, between the West and the East, that seemed to have been forgotten are there once more. This time it is not a matter of more or less abstract fears but of concrete economic and financial aspects. Everyone should leap to save what they can. This seems to be the name of the game at present, despite all the summits at which attempts are being made to cobble together a common European strategy for tackling the recession. With the exception of the European Central Bank, which is fulfilling its tasks very efficiently, the EU, despite its far-reaching network of institutions, lacks the authority necessary to impose a plan on the member states. And even though we agree on certain rules and measures, the differences between the individual states are obvious, above all between West and East. Unemployment, inflation and unbalanced budgets will affect every country to a different extent. The problem is that in the new democracies of Eastern Europe, which are still fragile and unruly, the recession will have more serious consequences [than in the West], including political repercussions. Populism could attract new followers and the number of Eurosceptics could swell." (14/11/2008)

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The Spanish daily El Mundo reflects in a leading article on two current rulings on euthanasia. In both cases the patients and their relatives have been granted the right to dispense with further life-prolonging measures. "On the one hand there is the tragedy of Hannah Jones, an English girl whom the judiciary has supported in her wish not to be given a heart transplant. Because she has leukaemia, her life so far has been filled with suffering and one operation after another. On the other hand there's the case of Eluana Englaro, a 37-year-old [Italian] who has been in a coma since 1992. Her father has just succeeded in convincing Italy's judiciary to allow the death of a person in this condition for the first time ever. These are both extreme and complex situations, from both the legal and ethical perspectives. ... Nonetheless we must insist that there is an important difference between rejecting a therapy on the one hand and euthanasia or assisted suicide on the other, which under our law is a punishable offence. The [Spanish] law on patient autonomy, which was passed under the government of [former prime minister José María] Aznar, grants citizens the right to reject a medical treatment. In accordance with this law we believe that it is appropriate to respect the conscious and carefully considered request of sick patients who do not wish to be kept alive through artificial life support or other special measures." (14/11/2008)

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The conservative newspaper Lidové noviny fears that the economic downturn in Germany will also affect the Czech Republic: "Although Germany's share of Czech exports is sinking continuously, it still accounts for more than 30 percent. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office Germany is now in a recession, and that will no doubt have repercussions on the Czech Republic. ... 2009 will be hard. We can expect prices to rise, regardless of the drop in oil prices and the slowdown in inflation. As opposed to recent years, however, unemployment will rise as well. Companies must adjust to sinking demand by cutting costs. That means layoffs." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Jaroslav Plesl

Representatives of the world's most important industrialised and emerging states (G20) are to meet on Saturday for a financial summit in Washington. According to the daily Trouw the meeting ushers in a new world order in which non-Western countries like China will play a greater role: "The G20 seems more a reflection of the new economic and political balance of power in the world than an enlarged G8. Important, too, is that unlike the G8 it is not an exclusive Western club. ... Too often we forget that the entire world order is a Western creation. International law, institutions like the UN, the WHO and the OECD as well as the majority of international treaties are Western initiatives that according to non-Western countries do not always serve their interests. The financial crisis offers these countries a golden opportunity to reform the current world order. And this will be to the detriment of us, the Western states. It will lead to new tensions between states. But new dependencies can also have a stabilising effect. ... The upcoming G20 Summit could be the herald of a new inter-polar world." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Rob de Wijk

The Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, who has been interned in a hospital in Belgrade for the past year, requested the right to resign in October. The Church Assembly has nevertheless decided that he should remain in office for life. Ethnos newspaper sees a political dimension to the power struggle in the Orthodox Church: "The Church Assembly has been forced to retain Pavle because it could not agree on a successor. ... Pavle belongs to the past. ... He became patriarch when the nationalists came to power together with former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. ... Apart from the large influence the Serbian Church has in the country's political life ... its political power also rests on a very significant fact: ... Not just Serbians in Serbia, but also those in Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia belong to the Church. For this reason it is of great importance to the US and the EU that a pro-Western patriarch should be elected." (13/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Giorgos Delastik

A group of US activists created a fake edition of the New York Times and distributed millions of free copies in several American cities. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sees the spoof, which among other things announced the end of the war in Iraq, as "a tribute to the power of the printed word, print news, its aura and its authority. ... In the Internet, where anyone ... can be his own director, there are countless pictures, films, texts and tones of usurped identity. ... Faking has become exceedingly easy in the age of electronic media, but also exceedingly inconsequential, at any rate much less significant than the effect of holy water on the devil, which we also know to be dwindling. But doesn't this make the production, financing and organised distribution by thousands of volunteers of this genuine fake and fake genuine newspaper all the more significant? While we laugh we notice that, more than simple parody, these pages contain a monstrous but at the same time comforting statement: The Iraq War, the Waterloo of reason the beginnings of which were broadcast on live television, has ended in a newspaper, in black-and-white print." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Oliver Jungen

Aladár Horváth, president of the Roma Civil Rights Federation, paints a gloomy picture of the situation of many Hungarian Roma in the monthly magazine Mozgó Világ. "Today many of the 600,000 to 800,000 Roma in Hungary are simply incapable of keeping up with society. This group includes the very poorest, roughly 300,000 people who while away their time in ghettos, so to speak outside of society. For them there is no way back in. ... They are dregs of Hungarian society. ... Once employed as agricultural and industrial labourers, these Roma lost their jobs during the political change of 1989-90 and slid down into a life of squalor from which there is no return. ... The life expectancy of these peole is 55 to 60 years, 15 years less than the Hungarian average. These people are now third-generation unemployed, and eke out a terrible existence on social welfare. The consequence is a total emotional and moral void." (14/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Aladár Horváth