The latest progress report by the EU Commission makes it clear that Romania and Bulgaria became members of the EU too soon, the daily Die Presse writes: "Their politically motivated integration in the EU meant that they lost much of their motivation to tackle widespread corruption and organised crime. ... Bulgaria and Romania are being delayed in their development because they don't really fit into the EU system yet. In other words by being over-ambitious about becoming EU members they have penalised themselves. Their accession has not paid off for either side. Neither for the two countries themselves, which strove to join the West as quickly as possible with the help of the EU. Nor for their EU partners, which wanted to make sure that their companies could do business in Romania and Bulgaria without much risk. And it has not paid off for the region as a whole either, where other possible accession candidates have now been discredited." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Europe, » Romania, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Wolfgang Böhm

The daily Gândul views the EU's progress report on Romania as very benevolent: "Many critical remarks directed at the Romanian authorities have completely disappeared [from the report], without anything positive having happened in Romania. The threat to tie accession to the Schengen zone to reform of the justice system has gone, for example. ... The government in Bucharest has benefited from the current political context: the changing of the political guard in Brussels occasioned by the elections to the European parliament. When it comes to politics, everything is ultimately a deal. The votes of the Romanian MEPs will be crucial in the autumn when [Commission President] José Manuel Barroso will be seeking to renew his mandate as President of the European Commission. ... At this moment it should be more evident to the Romanians than ever that Bucharest's policies and bureaucracy, even if they are not viewed favourably by Europe, will actually be accepted and tolerated." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Europe, » Romania, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Gabriela Stefan

The daily Dnevnik comments on the satisfaction of Bulgarian politicians with the EU's progress reports: "Everybody is happy! That is the impressive result of  the EU's progress report on home affairs and justice in Bulgaria. The ministers retiring from office breathed a sigh of relief that the report does not contain a 'safeguard clause' [measures to prevent particular problems or threats to the orderly functioning of the EU] which would have been the icing on the government's rotten cake. Seen in this light all criticism looks like a friendly pat on the back. ... What more do we want, after we have been allowed to board an extra carriage (really a horse-drawn cart) attached to the EU train specially for us (and Romania) - even if it is unlikely that we will soon find ourselves in a better situation."   (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Europe, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Svetlana Georgieva

US Vice President Joe Biden is currently visiting Ukraine and Georgia. The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung comments: "From the Russian leadership's point of view the trip to Kiev and Tbilisi is a test: Will the US continue with its aggressive rhetoric and back Russia's neighbours in their quest for democracy and alliance with the West? Or will it submit to the Russian notion of spheres of influence, to which in Moscow's eyes Ukraine and Georgia along with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recently catapulted into independence, also belong. Biden had no choice but to signal to the Georgians, who since the beginning of the brief war last summer have been in a state of collective depression, and the Ukrainians, who see themselves as the next victim of Russia's expansionary ambitions, that the White House is keeping an eye on their interests. He sensibly did this with cautious words and gestures for Obama's goal is to integrate the Russians, who for some time now have once again been feared by all their neighbours in Europe." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Ukraine, » Russia, » Eastern Europe, » U.S., » Georgian Republic
All available articles from » Thomas Urban

Iceland submits its formal application for membership of the European Union today. This puts the country behind other candidates like Croatia, Albania and Turkey from a chronological point of view. In his blog Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt writes that the Nordic country nonetheless has excellent chances of a swift accession: "European cooperation has retained its appeal. Albania has already applied for membership this year and I can't rule out further applications in the coming months. These applications will naturally each be considered individually and dealt with according to the current rules, routines and prerequisites. But as a member of the European Economic Area and the Schengen zone Iceland falls into a category that is considerably ahead of countries that are not participating in these forms of cooperation." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Iceland
All available articles from » Carl Bildt

The Belgian government this week decided to legalise around 25,000 asylum seekers whose applications had previously been rejected. The daily NRC Handelsblad points out that the Netherlands adopted a similar measure two years ago: "Not without good reason was a European immigration and asylum agreement signed at the end of 2008 that obliges the member states to fight illegal immigration and promote the return [of immigrants to their home countries]. Amnesties implemented by individual countries contravene this intention and can aggravate the problem for the EU as a whole. The 'Stockholm Programme' passed by the EU ministers of justice last week seeks to establish a common asylum procedure. The plan is that from 2014 on national decisions on asylum will require reciprocal recognition. It will then be even more difficult than it is now for amnesties granted by individual countries - be they Dutch (2007), Belgian or Spanish (2005) - to be considered outside their EU context. The Belgian amnesty … pushes the desire for a common EU asylum policy even further into the background." (22/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Migration, » Integration, » Belgium, » Europe

A Copenhagen church is currently granting asylum to Iraqi refugees in order to prevent their threatened deportation. The liberal-conservative daily Berlingske Tidende believes the church does not have any general right to grant asylum in order to hide persons sought by the authorities: "It is taken for granted that a wanted child-murderer will be taken away by the police even if he has sought refuge in a church and regardless of what the priest may think. ... The deported Iraqis are not child murderers, of course, but they have frequently broken the law. Some of them have deceived the authorities with forged papers and false statements. ... People who go into a church should do so with government approval. In the controversy on deportation policy ... politicians must also take responsibility if the police force enters a church." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Migration, » Minorities, » Denmark

Eglė Digrytė comments with an ironic undertone on a new Lithuanian law for the protection of the young on the news portal Delfi: "With their new law the MPs have garnered more attention for Lithuania than any expert on international relations could have done. … When has the world heard word of Lithuania? When one of us sent St. Bruno to the eternal hunting grounds. When Vytautas the Great made Lithuania a great state through his victory at the Battle of Grunwald [in 1410]. And after that, so people say, we were involved in the Jewish Holocaust. People on both sides of the Atlantic can still recall that particular sin. … So it was only logical that we draw up a law according to which all people are good, but some are better. The good are those who protect the threatened children's souls of the 21st century against the dangers of the world, but only those who do it 'properly' (please excuse my writing in a way that is suitable for all ages, for otherwise I would fear punishment for endangering the sexual orientation of young people)." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Minorities, » Gender equality, » Latvia
All available articles from » Eglė Digrytė

In a blog published on the news portal Aktualne.cz the journalist Karel Hvížďala says he believes the main reason for the letter from the ex-leaders of Central and Eastern European states to US President Barack Obama is their differing perceptions of the world order and their differing historical experiences: "As the sole superpower the United States takes a global perspective on the world. From this perspective Central Europe is just one problem, and not even a very big one. Washington's main concerns are North Korea, Iran and Pakistan - states whose arsenal of nuclear weapons may pose a threat to the world. Obama wants to tackle these problems together with Russia and to find common trade and defence interests that will make a new beginning possible. It is certainly not about friendship, but simply an attempt not to be afraid of one another, not to bare their teeth at one another and to take a concerted approach to insecurity. From their blinkered viewpoint Central Europe and the Czech Republic see Russia's efforts as a continuation of the same way it has behaved since its talk of so-called spheres of influence began." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Russia, » Central Europe, » Eastern Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Karel Hvížďala

In the left-liberal daily La Repubblica writer Predrag Matvejevic, who left his home town Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 and has lived in exile in Rome since 1994 makes suggestions as to how Italy's immigration debate could be improved: "The numbers arouse no sympathy. A discourse that informs us only about the number of those stranded or drowned in the sea easily turns into a merely quantitative, almost totalitarian discourse. … Certain elementary references to values - the cultural, social or moral values of humanism and Christianity - should have their place [in the debate]. … As far as the possibility of a 'qualitative approach' is concerned, we can start with a syntax that has been used by all emigrants from time immemorial. It is characterised by a kind of division in which we distinguish between 'ours' and 'theirs', between we who have come from other places and the people of the country where we are now. There is also a topographical particularity – the 'here' where we have arrived and the 'there' we have left - … and a temporal particularity that splits the biographies in two: the 'before' and the 'after'." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Italy, » Global, » Bosnia and Herzegovina
All available articles from » Predrag Matvejevic

The government of the Belgian region of Flanders has announced plans to give the crisis-stricken Opel plant in Antwerp 500 million euros in aid. The liberal daily De Standaard, however, writes that the plant is beyond hope: "That's a lot of money, particularly when you know that the Flemish car industry has been shrinking for years and that there is no reason to believe this trend will change. …Sweden has proven that there are other options. The liberal Swedish government is reacting quite differently to the auto industry crisis than the Flemish and German governments. It refuses to invest government money in activities that seem doomed to generate only losses and thus allowed Saab to declare bankruptcy without intervention. For a long time the European investment bank's loan for Volvo hung by a thread because the Swedish government didn't want to act as guarantor. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said back then that you shouldn't try to save a sinking ship. A statement we should recall when the curtain goes down on Opel Antwerp." (22/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Belgium
All available articles from » Ruben Mooijman

The European Commission on Wednesday announced a package of measures aimed at fighting the crisis in the dairy sector which the agricultural ministers of all EU countries are to consult on at the beginning of September. The daily Turun Sanomat writes: "For the dairy companies now in a crisis the most important proposal is for additional national subsidies to be granted. [The state] would then be free to pay additional funding of up to 15,000 euros to individual farmers by the end of next year. If the full amount in aid is granted to all the dairy companies in Finland it would create a hole of 180 million euros in the public purse. … Businesses in southern Finland are already in a financial squeeze owing to the lack of national subsidies for producers. The difficulties were already predictable when the EU decided to raise milk production quotas and abolish them entirely in 2015." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Agriculture, » Europe

Antonis Kakas, vice-chancellor of the University of Cyprus, believes that Cyprus should make itself a more attractive venue for international conferences because these are more immune to economic crises than classic package tourism. Writing in the right-wing liberal daily Politis he says: "Clearly at a time of fierce competition and insecurity new, robust strategies for the future should be developed and alternatives found to tackle the negative consequences for the tourism industry. Cooperation in the field of conference tourism could make an important contribution here. In other countries this sector is already well developed. Therefore it is important for Cyprus to present itself as a venue for high-quality conference tourism. Conference tourism is generally considered to be less crisis-prone than leisure tourism. Hence it has so far not been so affected by the global crisis." (22/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Tourism, » Cyprus
All available articles from » Antonis Kakas

About three months ago the run-down shipyards in Szczecin and Gdynia were sold to the investment fund Qinvest from Qatar. Apparently the fund has yet to transfer any money. Polish Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad holds the criticism of a citizens' initiative from Szczecin responsible. The nationalist Catholic newspaper Nasz Dziennik criticises the minister: "Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad is compromising the government by drawing a veil of mystery over the Qatar investor in the Polish shipyards. And his 'heroic deed' of yesterday breaks all records. ... The deadline has expired and the money isn't there. ... The minister is overstepping the boundaries of the absurd by holding the 'Association for the Protection of Shipyards and the Shipping Industry' responsible for this. (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Wojciech Kobryń

An editorial in the daily Ouest France criticises the low tuition fees at French universities, saying that this is leading to a considerable deterioration in the universities: "300 euros are less than what a young person spends on parties in a year. It is not even what a weekly visit to the cinema would cost. That reveals how we 'value' university education! The reposte is: the state must pay. ... But we need to change our way of thinking. Without [sufficient] funding French universities will become impoverished and disdained. Even by less developed countries which know that investment in education is very important. Chinese students, for example, complain that the conditions for studying in France are worse than those at home! The computer equipment is often inadequate and the libraries do not stand up to comparison with other European countries, let alone the United States." (23/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » France