According to the Financial Times the plans of newly elected Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to take action against corruption are decisive for EU enlargement: "Those who support further EU enlargement should pray Mr Borissov is successful. Since 2007, the momentum of enlargement has been lost and the appetite of many existing member states - particularly France - has diminished. Should the south-east European duo fail to improve, doubts over the EU's famed transformative power will creep in, and the prospects of EU enlargement to the western Balkans will be damaged. That would be a tragedy. The prospect of EU accession - however long and arduous the road - is one of the few stabilising factors in the Balkans. However blunt, enlargement has been the EU's most powerful foreign policy tool." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Europe, » Romania, » Bulgaria

You either need to change politics itself or the people in it, says political philosopher Rumen Dimitrov. In his homeland Bulgaria they do the latter, writes the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "The new government under the Rambo figure of Boyko Borisov consists of 'new, untainted' figures. A familiar pattern: in Bulgaria anyone who has been on the political scene for a long time is compromised. The only people who aren't compromised are those who we can be certain do not understand anything about politics. It's a Catch 22 situation: Anyone who wants to achieve anything must have done a deal with dubious networks. But anyone who refuses to do so won't achieve anything. Bulgaria's accession to the EU put wind into the sails of the country's anti-corruption campaigners. But that in itself isn't enough: Brussel makes the rules but doesn't show how to put them into practice. Without the classic political virtues of cunning and shrewdness it won't work. Before 'dirty' politics makes room for moral purity, the hour of the strong man will come. And even then there will still be corruption. You just won't hear about it any more." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Norbert Mappes-Niediek

Commenting on the new government in Bulgaria the daily Dnevnik writes: "The country has many tasks that need to be dealt with, like an old attic that should have been cleared out long ago. And indeed, what Boyko Borisov has announced he will do next, namely see to it that the motorway projects are completed, is something that people see as an urgent matter. But motorways are not the only urgent issue. It's high time to secure subsidies for the dairy farmers. It's high time to assess the economic efficiency of the plans for the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant. … Bulgaria is indeed full of things that need to be done and that up to now have simply been neglected or totally forgotten." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Bulgarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Julian Popov

The new Bulgarian parliament has banned former secret agents from assuming leading posts in the assembly or in important committees. The Romanian daily Adevărul comments: "Our southern neighbours have found the means to conduct an unexpected lustration [investigating people's political activities under communism]. Without making a song and dance about it they have limited the rights of those citizens who entered into a pact with the devil. Of course it's a lustration Balkan-style - too little and too late - but nonetheless a lustration. They haven't actually stopped the agents of evil entering the parliament, but simply limited their power in this legislative forum. Is this a lot? Or is it a little? It is certainly far more than we Romanians have done. We had the proclamation of Timisoara, with the famous Point 8 [a proposal by civil rights activists to conduct a lustration in 1989]. But our informers have not lost any power at all. What is more, we have allowed them to seize key positions to be sure that under democracy, too, they will be the ones running the show. Those with the most chutzpah have gone into politics ... ." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Romanian)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » History, » Romania, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Grigore Cartianu

The EU foreign ministers on Monday gave the EU Commission the task of examining Iceland's application for EU membership. The daily Večer comments: "Even if with its accession to the common European Economic Area Iceland already took a big step towards the EU the country won't simply be able to stay on the fast track [to membership]. The same rules apply for Iceland as for all other countries who want to join the EU. It's difficult to say whether Iceland will nonetheless be able to overtake Croatia, which according to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is in the final phase of negotiations. … Only once the Eurocrats of the European Commission have examined Iceland's legal system and compared it with the European system and submitted a report stating all the adjustments that need to be made and what remains to be negotiated, only then will we be able to tell how far Iceland really is from EU membership." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Slovenian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Europe, » Iceland
All available articles from » Darja Kocbek

The liberal daily Sme criticises the Slovak position in the current quarrel with Hungary over the Slovak state language law: "The government is continually warning of the growth of right-wing forces in Hungary. Yet it is incapable of even having normal relations with the left-wing governments of Ferenc Gyurcsány or Gordon Bajnai. The mixed Slovak-Hungarian Commission didn't meet to discuss the language law until there was really nothing more to decide and all they could do was declare that they had different views on the matter. The government speaks of a hysterical campaign by all Hungarian politicians but doesn't distinguish between those who take a fair and diplomatic approach and those trying to grind their own political axe. How will this government communicate with the potential premier Viktor Orbán if it can't communicate with Bajnai?" (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Slovak)
More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Languages, » Hungary, » Slovakia
All available articles from » Kalman Petöcz

After French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taken to hospital after 'feeling faint' on Sunday, the daily Le Monde considers the issue of access to information about the health of state leaders: "As soon as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing [French president between 1974 and 1981] was elected he forgot his promise to publish two medical bulletins a year. And nothing of the kind happened under François Mitterrand [president from 1981 to 1995] either. The little 'progress' there consisted of going from silence to official lies. ... On Sunday several hours passed before the Elysée [the official residence of the French president] published a first four-line communication, which spoke of the president having been 'taken ill' . ...The second communication ... did not explain the president's feeling faint but simply made it clear that this 'did not involve him losing consciousness' - whatever that is supposed to mean." (27/07/2009)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Health Policy, » France

In Lithuania a law has been passed that defines homosexuality as a threat to children. The driving force behind the legislation was Christian-conservative parties and the Roman Catholic Church, the national daily NRC Handelsblad writes: "But it's not just these political-religious factors that have enabled a barely concealed homophobic law to take effect in Lithuania. Much remains to be done in other places in the EU as well. In neighbouring Latvia, which from a religious point of view was formed by Luther rather than by Rome, the organisers of the Gay Pride parade have had to clear countless hurdles put in their way by politicians since the first parade in 2005. Even the Netherlands … is no oasis of openness. … Apparently homosexuality can't be normal. …So it's not fair to point a finger only at the eastern countries. It would be good if the Lithuanian law was declared null and void by Europe's highest judges but we need to be on guard - even in the West." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Gender equality, » Lithuania, » Europe

Ten years ago Sweden introduced a new prostitution law making the purchase of sex, but not the sale of it, a punishable offence. The daily Svenska Dagbladet takes a critical view of the results of the law and the message it sends: "According to police in Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm there are now just as many prostitutes on the streets as there were before the introduction of the law. The change in behaviour the legislators had hoped to achieve apparently didn't take place. … According to radical feminist logic only the men (because in most cases it's men) are held responsible for a transaction that takes place between two parties. Moreover by blurring the boundary between forced and voluntary prostitution the message of the law is clear: Women can't be entrusted with the full responsibility for their bodies. A woman who sells sex voluntarily is simply a victim of the male who buys sex. This does not strengthen women; it simply declares them unable to look after themselves. … We should concentrate on fighting forced prostitution and human trafficking instead of arresting people because they go to prostitutes who have chosen this profession of their own free will." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Swedish)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social affairs, » Gender equality, » Sweden

In a guest commentary for the liberal daily Mladá Fronta Dnes, Martin Kovalčík of the "People in Need" relief aid organisation seeks the reasons for the Roma's exodus from the Czech Republic: "Czech society is giving them to understand that they are not wanted here. This is a disgrace for us all. Twenty years after the establishment of democracy we still haven't understood that it's not 'we' and 'them', but that we're all citizens with the same rights and obligations. … The Roma are not at the same starting line as the people from the majority society. To be frank, if I were a Roma I would also think about emigrating. … When [signs] appeared in shops in Austria saying 'Czechs, don't steal!' there was a wave of protest here in the Czech Republic. After all, not all Czechs are thieves, they said. This generalisation is insulting. But aren't we doing the same with the Roma as what we protested against when the Austrians did it to us?" (28/07/2009)

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » Minorities, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Martin Kovalčík

Economics expert and manager Giulio Sapelli analyses the causes of the global economic crisis in the liberal-conservative newspaper Corriere della Sera: "What clearly emerges [from the crisis] is the link between economic and moral principles. A link that we had forgotten for many years, because ... financial rewards took the place of feelings of professional pride and loyalty to a company and its owners, which for centuries made possible the establishment of the industrial and today the post-industrial society whose children we all are. An enormous legacy of knowledge and values, ... which pulled huge masses of people worldwide out of material misery. All of this was threatened by a philosophy of instant wealth, which is at the root of today's Nihilism. All this was able to happen because we ... lost track of the importance of experience, of commitment to work, and of the fruitful relationship between the generations and between all cultures." (28/07/2009)

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Corporations, » Weltanschauung, » Global
All available articles from » Giulio Sapelli

EU governments want US intelligence services to continue to have access to European bank data. The daily Die Presse criticises this as a "carte blanche for arbitrary use of power": "It is not only the US that is using the argument of fighting terrorism to turn a deaf ear to all the objections of data protectionists. But the end does not necessarily justify the means. At some point we need to weigh up the protection of the citizen against what crime detection technology is actually necessary and how successful it is. … Wherever there is access to sensitive personal data there is also abuse of that access. In this way certain sensitive data are used not only for security purposes but also often to achieve trivial political or economic goals." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Banks, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Wolfgang Böhm

The Dutch government wants to limit the influence of shareholders on company management to prevent so-called predatory capitalism. It plans to limit their right of appeal and force them to reveal their intentions. The right-wing-liberal weekly Elsevier criticises these plans: "Is it not the case that it was precisely the short-term thinking they were forced to engage in by shareholders that got the banks into trouble? ... No, it has more to do with the banker's pursuit of bonuses, and shareholders still have very little to say about precisely this reward structure. ... It would not be a bad thing per se if shareholders were to reveal their intentions early on. They, too, are required to be open and honest. But the cabinet seems to want to return to the time ... when managers and supervisory boards, supported by a few major shareholders, could do business undisturbed. That is undesirable. It is not wrong to subject managers to the discipline of the investors. Managers who do their job well have nothing to fear." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Financial Markets, » Netherlands
All available articles from » Ron Kosterman

The left-liberal daily Népszabadság comments on the fact that the New York Times journalist David Rohde was held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan for many months and nobody reported on it: "'All the News That's Fit to Print.' This sentence is printed at the top left-hand corner of the front page of every edition of the New York Times. There are exceptional cases, however, when an editor decides not to publish news even if it is newsworthy. ... The US media recently refrained from reporting for humanitarian reasons. For seven months The New York Times remained silent about the fact that one of its star journalists, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Rohde, had fallen into the hands of the Taliban in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. ... Anyone who believes that in the home of modern freedom (the US) clean practice only goes skin deep is wrong. Regimentation, control, self-control - these are words heard in many contexts in the US today. ... It is fatal to erect systems of rules and practices that we do not survive. Rohde survived his imprisonment by the Taliban and the US has survived the news embargo." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Media policy, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » László Szőcs

The left-liberal daily The Guardian praises the music-streaming portal Spotify: "Spotify offers a promising way to align the interests of musicians and audiences. The software, which could not be easier to use, allows instant free access to literally millions of works - from William Lawes to Lily Allen. Put to one side the small handful of big bands who are refusing to get involved, and it is only wilful hunters after obscurity who are likely to leave disappointed. In time, Spotify hopes to lure some users to part with a subscription in return for nifty extras, such as the iPhone application which it has just submitted for Apple's approval. Most, however, will continue to listen - as now - for free, in return for enduring an advert every 20 minutes or so. The jingles may grate, but it has to be welcomed that music can lawfully be enjoyed for a song." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Global

In the left-liberal daily To Vima engineer Stavros Konstantinidis complains that many Greek tourist resorts have been poorly developed and asks whether it would be possible to adopt the model of so-called green cities there: "The quality of life on the Greek islands and tourist resorts has diminished in comparison to everyday life in the big city. Most of the islands are sinking into a huge traffic chaos of noise and pollution. … Everyone, and in particular foreign visitors, has the right to ask whether their holiday fulfils the main criteria: relaxation, rest and enjoyment. In Europe the first 'green cities' are already being built. For Greece it would be interesting to start with the islands with the aim of implementing a comprehensive plan for sustainable tourist resorts with new alternatives and radical ideas. The islands will have to gradually adopt the 'car-free cities' philosophy. Tourist resorts and small coastal settlements all over the world are adapting their services to pedestrians rather than motorists." (28/07/2009)

» full article (external link, Greek)
More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Greece
All available articles from » Stavros Konstandinidis