In the present financial and economic crisis the new EU member states should not all be lumped together in one category, the daily newspaper Financial Times Deutschland writes: "The label Eastern Europe seems utterly out of place when Central European EU states are mentioned in the same breath as Russia or Ukraine, which haven't been involved in the European adaptation process and still suffer from the fact that they don't offer a secure environment for investments. When beyond economic shortcomings there are warnings of political instability the warnings can at most refer to these CIS states. The phase of democratic reforms in the new EU states has been so successful that they now have dependable political systems. So far there has been no generalised crisis in Eastern Europe, even if the tendency to generalise could indeed result in all the states of the region coming under pressure. Sensible investors, however, should be able to distinguish between genuine problem cases and normally developed economies." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe, » Eastern Europe

The rapid development and strong growth in Eastern Europe in recent years are taking their toll in the crisis, writes the Slovenian paper Dnevnik: "The first two months of this year were a catastrophe for every investor. On the developed stock markets of Western Europe, for example, the DAX lost 17.4 percent of its value and the French CAC 14.6. According to Bloomberg the biggest losers in the East are the Romanian BET with a minus of 38.5 percent this year and Poland's WIG20 with a loss of 31.2 percent. At this rate it's hard to imagine where share prices will end up by the end of 2009. Because until now the measures introduced in the various countries seem not to have had any effect to speak of. The real economy is increasingly feeling the negative impact of the crisis, which could in turn have a negative influence on business integrity. And further events on the stock markets depend on whether the indexes can be stabilised." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Slovenian)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Eastern Europe
All available articles from » Jernej Kozlevčar

The business paper Figelõ reflects on the remarks of the leader of the opposition in Hungary Viktor Orbán, who has accused Western Europe of deserting Central and Eastern Europe in the crisis: "Orbán's concern is justified. This economic protectionism is indeed detrimental and a bad approach to dealing with the crisis, not to mention the fact that it makes little sense in a globalised economy. If the 'French' carmakers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia do return to France as President Nicolas Sarkozy has populistically demanded, who would buy these expensive cars? … It would be wrong to seek a solution to the crisis in economic nationalism and pitching countries against each other. What is required now is a pan-European approach." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Hungary, » Europe

The Romanian newspaper Dilema Veche is not surprised that Austria has requested financial aid for Austrian banks from several Eastern European governments. "From the perspective of those living there the European Union is made tangible through certain things in day-to-day life ... that give us the distinct impression that 'we are not foreigners' when we travel to other European states. ... What's more: we feel like Europeans when we encounter Vodafone, stores like Lidl, Metro and Carrefour, and pay with our credit card from 'our' bank at home. Equally, the visit of the Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll highlights the European dimension of the crisis: our banks are also your banks, the difference between 'us' and 'you' is no longer relevant. ... The case of a couple of European banks that perform transactions in several states concerns not only the inhabitants of the country where they have their headquarters. Banks have no nationality, and neither does bankruptcy." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Romanian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Austria, » Europe, » Romania
All available articles from » Mircea Vasilescu

The daily Gazeta Wyborcza comments on the 65th anniversary of the murder of several hundred Poles in what at the time was a Polish village near Lwów (now Lviv) in western Ukraine. "One can come to terms with even the bloodiest past. Poland and Ukraine should not flag in their efforts to do this. Saturday provides another opportunity for reconciliation in Huta Pieniacka near Lviv, where 65 years ago several hundred Poles were murdered. … This crime was perpetrated by an SS police battalion that consisted mainly of Galician Ukrainians. Ukrainian partisans supported them. Although the crime was committed by the Germans because it was they who gave the orders, it was carried out by Ukrainians. [As well as Polish President Lech Kac Kaczyński] Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko will also be travelling to Huta Pieniacka. This will send another important signal and means Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation is more than just an empty phrase." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » History, » Poland, » Ukraine
All available articles from » Marcin Wojciechowski

The daily Lietuvos Rytas argues that Lithuania should accept seven Uzbek prisoners from Guantánamo, explaining why they should not be sent back to Uzbekistan: "Several human rights organisations have reported on persecutions, imprisonments and judgements with religious motives. If we consider how brutally the regime of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov treats its political opponents we can be pretty much sure that the Guantánamo prisoners will go straight back to jail. And it's entirely possible they will be subject to more repression there than in Guantánamo." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Lithunian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Religion, » Lithuania, » Asia, » U.S.
All available articles from » Edgunas Racius

The liberal daily Sme comments on the most recent attacks on members of the Roma minority in Hungary. "The Hungarian media warn of national bankruptcy and civil war. Both are exaggerations, but they do say something about the psychological state of our neighbour. The economic situation in the country, its public finances and the ethnic tensions between the Hungarian majority and the Roma minority have at least one common root. ... Experts have been drawing attention to these ticking time bombs for ages. If they now threaten to explode it is owing to the cowardice of the Hungarian political elite, which for years has closed its eyes to the problem in the hope that everything will solve itself. And if that doesn't happen, they hope that at least it won't happen while the current government is in power." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Slovak)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Minorities, » Hungary
All available articles from » Peter Morvay

Mirek Topolánek, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, writes in the Financial Times on the European way out of the crisis: "I strongly believe that instead of helpless wandering and trial and error, discipline and prudence must be maintained: fiscal rules (the growth and stability pact); a free market without barriers; and fair competition without protectionism and random, uncontrolled subsidies. Without true unity, the EU will fail to cope with recession and fail to shape future developments at an international level. Therefore, if we cannot rely on a deus ex machina, the member states should, in co-operation with the EU institutions, resort to one thing only: force the banks to get rid of impaired assets that continue to poison the internal market, and instead allow viable companies to invest and get the European economy back on its original track – towards liberalisation and increasing competitiveness – by adopting a responsible lending policy." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Mirek Topolánek

Commenting on the state of the Church in Bulgaria Nikolai Kantchev writes in the daily Gradski vestnik that rather than Christian values shallowness and kitsch are spreading across the country: "It is sad. The Christian churches are emptier than the museums nowadays. Enter a church around midday, even one in a central location, and you'll meet at most ten people. Even sadder are the crowds who rush to attend mass at Christmas and Easter. And because there is no one to chase them away street traders lurk in front of churches offering tacky souvenirs. The Easter masses have become a schizophrenic mixture of singed hair, drunken extremists and Roma selling T-shirts and candles. … The devotion that one expects to find in churches has been replaced by hysterical cursing because of the overcrowding, the sound of doors being slammed and the shouting of people who hate themselves. Salvation can be bought by the gram or quarter of a litre. The smell of incense and the crackling of the burning candles have been replaced by explosions in restaurants and cars. Even the icons are different nowadays – with more silicon. Things should have been different." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Bulgarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » Religion, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Nikolai Kanchev

Employees of the car maker Opel, which has been badly hit by the economic crisis, are demonstrating across Europe for their jobs. For the Frankfurter Rundschau the protests send a message against fatalism and egoism: "With their cross-border day of protest the employees are showing they will not resign themselves to their fate without out a struggle. They stand arm in arm with their colleagues in other locations, whether Germany, the UK or Poland. European solidarity thrives here, something which can by no means be taken for granted in these times. In England unionists protest against workers from Eastern Europe. In Italy the prime minister rails against foreigners. In Spain the police harass migrants without residence permits who they let be in better times. With their protests the car workers have answered this new economic nationalism with an effective countermeasure. At Opel solidarity comes relatively easily because the workers are bound by anger at the common enemy, the evil mother from America [General Motors]." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » United Kingdom, » Poland, » Europe
All available articles from » Markus Sievers

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has presented arguments to the European Commission in favour of a Europe-wide rescue plan for the automotive industry. His spokesperson Luc Chatel explains in Le Monde that France is not acting out of protectionist motives: "The origin of the collapse of the automotive sector is well-known: the financial crisis and its mutation into an economic crisis. ... In this respect we have decided in favour of loans to car manufacturers based in France. This is the least protectionist measure one can possibly imagine. ... We must bear in mind that French producers have extended their production to many EU member states. ... Accordingly, these countries will profit indirectly from the loans. ... Moreover, our automotive rescue plan is far from being limited to national producers. It is aimed at all manufacturers based in France, regardless of their nationality." (26/02/2009)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » France
All available articles from » Luc Chatel

A panel of experts appointed by EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and led by the former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Jacques de Larosière presented on Wednesday a report recommending a reform of Europe's financial supervision system. The Spanish daily El País welcomes this initiative. "Most of the ideas contained in the report, which is a serious warning to Europe's financial supervision bodies, are based on the Spanish supervisory system, which is more stringent and better organised than those of other Eurozone countries. Now the governments must take these proposals, write them up properly and implement them. … Europe deserves instruments that enable it to prevent and fight the impact of a crisis which, like the current one, threatens to decimate European companies." (27/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Spanish)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Financial Markets, » Spain, » Europe

Zuzana Kocumová, a Czech cross-country skier who competed in several international contests, has been banned as a commentator at the Nordic World Ski Championship in Liberec for refusing to attach the suffix "-ova" to names of foreign female athletes, as is customary in the Czech language. The conservative daily Lidové noviny comments: "We can praise our language for its flexibility and we assiduously lengthen and decline names, but that doesn't help us at all on the Internet, on Google for example, because there there's no '-ova' suffix. De facto we already use two languages (one day-to-day, another in the Internet). The purism being propagated so passionately here is simply funny to watch. ... The purists may not like it, but all Kocumová did was to reflect this reality. In ten years we'll no doubt laugh over this struggle against putatively sloppy language." (27/02/2009)

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » Audiovisual Media, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček

The trial against The Pirate Bay, the world's largest online exchange service, shows that current copyright laws have ceased to be applicable in today's modern media world, the Swedish daily Expressen writes. "The branch has been painfully slow to adapt to digital reality. The popular music service Spotify, which offers a huge range of music streams, shows that solutions can be found. Recognising people's cultural interests and the unbeatable distribution opportunities offered by the Internet is a much more viable approach to protecting copyright than hunting down file-sharing individuals or the chief ideologists of piracy. Even if legal services are unable to prevent the illegal distribution of files they are an alternative worth testing." (26/02/2009)

» full article (external link, Swedish)
More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Media policy, » Sweden

Several US states are considering abolishing the death penality as a cost-cutting measure in the financial crisis. Columnist Ilja Leonard Pfeijfer suggests the Dutch could save quite a lot on the Dutch royal family, whose costs are currently being examined by the former finance minister Gerrit Zalm. "The financial crisis gives us a magic argument for abolishing things we always wanted to abolish but couldn't without the magic argument, for example the royal family. Could Zalm already be finished counting the beans? In fact, however, it makes no difference how much the royal family costs exactly, because it certainly costs a lot. All those palaces, hats, trips abroad, as well as the Green Dragon, the royal yacht. All of that is pretty hard to swallow in these times of crisis, don't you think? 'A president is a halfwit in a raincoat', a buddy of mine likes to say. Exactly. But whatever he is, he certainly costs a lot less than a monarch. And what could be more Dutch than appointing a president because it's cheaper?" (27/02/2009)

» more information (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Netherlands
All available articles from » Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer