El País newspaper praises the declaration's distinguished career: "During the more than half a century of its existence, the Declaration of Human Rights has faced the same difficulties as other fundamental texts of international law. Its precepts have been disregarded, both domestically - for example by the numerous dictators of the second half of the twentieth century - and in international conflicts, which are often more lethal for the defenceless civil populations than for the soldiers themselves. But the paradox that makes this text so special is that all of the countless shameful violations it has suffered and continues to suffer have not stopped it from becoming a moral imperative of our time, transcending both borders and ideologies." (10/12/2008)

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The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sees the document as a success: "That even today there are still massive human rights abuses, as we see day by day in the news, should not lead us to conclude that the development of human rights is not a success story. The 'Universal Declaration' was the beginning of a triumphal march that has not yet ended. Although today, as sixty years ago, there is still no global legislating body, the human rights declaration has been concretised in treaties and has become binding. Violations can't change this. ... The motto today is: No state that does not respect human rights can be permanent and successful in the globalised world." (10/12/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Weltanschauung, » Global
All available articles from » Reinhard Müller

The daily Delo writes that the document gives mankind a "common moral and political denominator", but points out that the current situation is anything but exemplary. "The home country of Eleanor Roosevelt, who sixty years ago played a key role in the adoption of the human rights declaration, has since joined the ranks of Franz Kafka's heroes; and the UK, the birthplace of parliamentary democracy, is flirting with George Orwell's 'Big Brother' state. ... But despite all this human rights remain the only possibility ... for protecting the dignity of man." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Rudi Dr. Rizman

"The year 2008 witnessed a growing indifference among Slovak politicians regarding human rights and freedoms," writes the liberal daily Sme. "The view prevailed that a stubborn stance on this issue would impede trade relations. ... This year, like last year, Prime Minister Robert Fico attended the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. President Ivan Gašparovič attended the Olympic Games opening ceremony without making any mention of human rights abuses in China and Tibet. ... Yet human rights are at the core of Europe's traditions. By actively supporting them Slovakia can prove that it is not indifferent to events taking place beyond its borders. This will be all the more valid next year, which marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Vladimír Vladár

The daily Le Monde calls attention to the threats to human rights: "In the West the Declaration of Human Rights is the common political and moral point of reference. Elsewhere it is often seen as the tool of cultural and political imperialism. ... Three forces are today laying siege to the principle of fundamental human freedoms: ... Islamism ... which does not respect religious freedom or even any freedom outside the religious community; ... authoritarian states, which put national interests before civil rights, and finally tyrannical or bankrupt rogue states in which there are no rights whatsoever." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Joëlle Kuntz

The news blog Rue89 writes that although the idea of the Declaration of Human Rights is good, its implementation leaves much to be desired: "Human rights: the most noble of all ideas. Most certainly. But not in practice. Because although the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday, it is a far cry from being governed by it." (09/12/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Weltanschauung, » Global
All available articles from » Hubert Artus

The business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore writes that the declaration has yet to be implemented: "Today it is no longer a question of achieving an understanding through declarations, documents, constitutions and jurisprudence. What must be done now is to create the conditions under which the laws can be obeyed. Do we believe in the realisable Utopia contained in the words of the declaration? And if we do, what are we doing in each and every country to move closer to that Utopia?" (01/01/1970)

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All available articles from » Valerio Onida

The EU states have compromised on raising renewable energy sources in the EU to 20 percent by 2020. Politiken newspaper welcomes the agreement: "This firm decision is extremely good news for Denmark, Europe, the world and - yes - the global economy, which is so dependent on new visions in the midst of this crisis. Certainly one can object that the goal is not very ambitious. But its ambitiousness exactly matches its attainability. It will stimulate the development of new technologies which we need to sidestep the problem of fossil fuels. The EU's decision is not the only initiative meant to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions. Increasing the efficiency of power plants and conserving energy are also extremely important. Moreover the decision paves the way for what will probably be even greater progress after 2020. We have come one step closer to the possibility of becoming a fossil-free society." (10/12/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Denmark, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Michael Stoltze

Croatia and Slovenia are caught up in a dispute over their joint border. Slovenia has threatened to block Croatia's EU membership negotiations unless Zagreb backs down. The daily Večer writes: "Clearly Slovenia's diplomats have failed, since the beginning of Croatia's talks on EU membership in October 2005, to make the people responsible at the foreign ministries of the EU's largest states and the European Commission understand why these 25 kilometres of coastline are so important to Slovenia's national interests and why its southern neighbour cannot be allowed to move its border northwards. For its part Croatia was clearly able to justify its position convincingly long ago, and has therefore gathered the necessary support. ... It is high time Slovenia made it clear to the EU member states and the European Commission that Slovenia's views are definitive and irreversible." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Darja Kocbek

"The cause for the anger that has poured forth during the protests throughout Greece must be sought in the country's political culture", writes the Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat on the riots currently shaking Greece. "The current blind vandalism and provocation of the police cannot be qualified as heroic resistance. The sound of the street is not the voice of the people. The Communist Party and the radical Coalition of the Left together received over ten percent of the vote in last year's parliamentary elections. ... More than 80 percent of Greeks voted either for the conservatives or the Socialists, who have more or less shared power since the end of the military dictatorship. Both parties' terms in office were overshadowed by corruption and did nothing to tackle the root of the problem." (10/12/2008)

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

Writing in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Witold Gadomski joins in the debate about the restructuring of Poland's shipyards. "The EU has ruled that in the past few years two Polish shipyards received public funding for which they were not eligible, and is now demanding that the money be repaid. This would leave the shipyards insolvent and cause serious problems for hundreds of firms with which they have cooperated. At the same time the Commission has put aid amounting to hundreds of billions of euros for banks and other financial institutions on its agenda. This has provoked surprise and suspicion - particularly in Poland - that our country is not being treated equally within the EU. I don't agree with these views. The Polish shipyards have lost out not because the EU is overly stringent but through the incompetence of the various governments that failed to reach an agreement with the EU in the past. Moreover, we should not forget that the economy does not grow through subsidies but through the good work of employees and managers." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Witold Gadomski

Karen Horn, director of the Berlin office of the Institute of the German Economy in Cologne, calls in the monthly magazine Internationale Politik for a radical change in economic sciences in the face of the current financial crisis. "As the representative of the Austrian school, Friedrich August von Hayek, once said, social sciences deal with complex phenomena. The focus is not on objectively observable circumstances but subjective perceptions which, however, relate to the real world: opinions, expectations, convictions. The best one can achieve with such a fuzzy subject is models that explain the principles of effect and prediction models. Principles of effect describe how things happen; prediction models provide qualitative directions. That's it. Precise predictions are impossible. Modesty is required. But many economists have suppressed this truth. And this has led to the fundamental contingence that must always be observed in our social interactions if people are to be free to make their own decisions simply being ignored. ... It is time for a radical reform in economic sciences, particularly as regards appointing new chairs. We need much more organisation theory, much more social philosophy. We must think more and calculate less." (08/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Karen Horn

The economic crisis will soon put an end to the harmony between Italians and their prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, writes Aldo Schiavone in his leading article for the left-liberal Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "For the first time in ages, perhaps even since he entered politics, a situation has arisen in which Silvio Berlusconi has fallen into disaccord with that key part of the population that has followed him until now. For fifteen years our prime minister has constantly churned out the same story: his own. He has shown a knack for being the symbolic representation of his own self, a living statue to his own success, his will to survive. ... Berlusconi has not changed the country, but simply been able to make opportune use of a popular surge, hoisting his sails and riding it out while taking advantage of his opponents' grave mistakes. All of that is now over. We must quickly learn to live with recession. We must abolish privileges, develop new consumer strategies and above all keep a close eye on this dire situation. And precisely that lies entirely outside the prime minister's field of vision and - to use an anthropological term - beyond his cultural reach." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Aldo Schiavone

Michael Leigh, head of the European Commission's Enlargement Directorate General, has discussed the problems that cutting 220 million euros in EU funding will cause for Bulgaria with Bulgarian politicians. The daily Dnevnik expresses the opinion that the country can't just rely on the EU: "It is naïve to see the EU as a nanny that sooner or later will put the naughty children in the corner. The criticism from Brussels is a useful instrument. But we should listen to it and use it constructively. ... Even if EU officials are strict, they are obliged to exercise restraint when voicing expert opinions. What Michael Leigh is not allowed to say is that the deficiencies are tolerated to make misappropriation possible. This is a political assessment and it should come from Bulgarian citizens and their political representatives. ... But if such an assessment is not accompanied by deeds ... it won't achieve much. The time has come for that section of the nation that is against the begging stance and for adhering to rules and a transparent management to find its place on the political stage." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Boiko Pentchev

Der Standard writes that state aid to banks has exposed structural flaws and contradictions in Europe: "It is striking how the rules and regulations contradict one another within the Union. With Basel II a corset has been tightened which is based on the capital resource quotas of corporate finance. However in times of falling stock prices capital resources also sink automatically, which is why banks should really be reducing their lending. But that is exactly what should be avoided to keep the economy alive. So state holdings in banks are now being cast as a last resort measure. But in fact they contradict the funding guidelines and are also hardly compatible with budget allowances. And the central bank also counts among the contradictions of the EU: It is lavishing so much money on the banks that they won't so much as consider lending money to each other. It seems that Basel, Brussels and Frankfurt are worlds apart." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Andreas Schnauder

Prime Minister Popescu-Tăriceanu has declared that the Romanian economy must focus on companies founded on domestic capital while President Traian Basescu has called for consumers to buy more domestic goods. The business daily Capital considers a purely nationalist approach to be naïve: "The numbers speak for themselves. Romania's exports ... depend by up to 70 percent on the products of multinational firms. It's true that foreign companies account for more than 50 percent of imports, but it would be wrong to say that we're just talking about food, clothes and vehicles here. There's also equipment for production lines. Romania's first trade partners were also those who have made large investments in the country. Without these investments it is unlikely that many of the domestic companies would have been able to adjust quickly and efficiently to the demands of the external market. ... Whether we believe it or not: those 160,000 companies with foreign capital are just as important for the economy as the half a million domestic companies. Therefore the two statesmen would have done better to remain silent." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Iulian Bortos

Le Monde looks at the Erasmus programme and the decline in student mobility in recent years: "Erasmus, which in less than 20 years has prompted roughly 1.7 million students to study abroad, no longer exudes the charm it once did. While the youths of the new member states are just as hungy to study abroad as ever, those of the old Europe are increasingly picky. ... Indeed, it is astonishing just how few students actually know about Erasmus. Almost one third of young French people ... admit they're 'not familiar' with the European programme. ... Today both the quantity and the quality of Erasmus studies are being called into question. Examples are legion of Erasmus students with nothing but free time, language skills that are insufficient for them to so much as follow a lecture and extremely indulgent grades." (09/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Brigitte Perucca

In Prague the first multiplex will close its doors following a futile battle to attract larger audiences. In terms of moviegoers, the market share of multiplexes stands at 64 percent, while in terms of turnover it's as high as 80 percent. The Prague newspaper Pražský deník predicts that the closure represents an exceptional case rather than the beginning of a trend, noting that the smaller cinemas are in greater danger. "The residents of Prague need not fear. They won't be deprived of the smell of roasting popcorn, big screens, comfortable seats or coke in plastic cups. The big cinemas are still attracting large audiences, while the classic cinemas are decreasing in number. You can compare the latter with the good old corner shop and multiplexes with supermarkets. You can buy anything at supermarkets and you can always find a parking space, too." (10/12/2008)

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All available articles from » Lucie Boháčová