The leftist daily Avgi writes about the consequences of Germany's policy in Afghanistan: "The participation of German soldiers in the war in Afghanistan has become a very important issue and the parties are now called on to state clearly when and how this mission, which Berlin presented as a humanitarian act and which has now proved so disastrous, is to end. … The German government is faced with accusations from abroad that it acted inhumanely. In Germany there is pressure for the soldiers to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. … Now, in the midst of the election campaign, the German parties must state their position on an awkward subject they thought had been shelved. Now The Left [party] has talked about withdrawal from the Hindu Kush. This issue has pushed its way to the forefront of public debate and citizens want to hear some concrete dates." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Kaki Balli

The controversial air strike in Afghanistan has become a prominent issue in Germany's election campaign but only The Left party dares to call for a complete withdrawal, writes the left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung, commenting that all other parties are too deeply committed to the Bundeswehr's deployment: "That's pretty much determined by the posts held or aspired to by the parties' leading politicians. Even if the [social democratic] SPD, the Greens or the [liberal] FDP really did want to attack deployment in Afghanistan - which despite all their doubts doesn't look at all likely at the moment - they couldn't. The SPD is in the least comfortable spot in this debate. With his firm defence of German reasons of state, [Foreign Minister and chancellor candidate Frank-Walter] Steinmeier is once more hemmed in on all sides. On the one side is The Left party, the only group to argue for an immediate withdrawal, and on the other the chancellor [Angela Merkel], who yesterday nourished vague hopes that a date for withdrawal will be set. There must be substantial progress within the next five years, she said. That's certainly very vague, but it sounds more definite than what Steinmeier's come up with." (09/09/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Germany, » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Ralph Bollmann

The left-liberal daily La Repubblica writes that criticism of the Kunduz province air strike ordered by the Germans has had the effect of uniting two political rivals, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and SPD Foreign Minister and candidate for the chancellorship Frank-Walter Steinmeier: "The issue has split the country in two halves. Around 61 percent of Germans favour a withdrawal. But the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats - who rule together but present themselves to voters as two alternative majority concepts - stand united. They say clearly that they want to reconsider the mission, but they defend it and talk of a 'transfer strategy' for passing on responsibility to the Afghan authorities. At the same time they vehemently defend themselves against those - from Washington to the Nato headquarters - who have criticised the call of the German command for an air strike as premature. … The next international conference due to take place in Berlin on the future of Afghanistan … will be the hour of truth for the European and Western mission in Kabul." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Andrea Tarquini

In view of recent events in Kunduz province and the rising number of military casualties it's no wonder debate is once more flaring up over Afghanistan, comments the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant. But the Nato states must persevere, the paper writes: "The West must be careful not to succumb to stress as soon as anything goes wrong. Above all it should avoid giving the impression that its major concern is how to get out. ... In recent months the Nato mission in Afghanistan has been subject to in-depth evaluation. In the process agreement has been reached that for too long excessive attention has been paid to military aspects, and that apart from security concerns the demand for economic development and a sound administration must also be heard. ... This new approach ... deserves a real chance. ... The worst service Nato could do to Afghanistan would be to sow doubts with every setback about whether it will stay its course in the fight against a movement that would plunge the country into even deeper misery if it took power." (09/09/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S., » Western Europe, » Afghanistan

The left-liberal daily The Guardian feels that the fraud which marred Afghanistan's presidential elections has only made the situation in the country worse: "The Electoral Complaints Commission yesterday [Tuesday] discarded 200,000 votes as too dubious to be counted. The trouble is that although more international oversight might limit fraud a second time around, Mr [Hamid] Karzai would still almost certainly win, since few believe that the Pashtun population will vote in any numbers for Abdullah Abdullah, a candidate they regard as a Tajik, in spite of the fact that he is half Pashtun. The most fundamental problem of all is that Mr Karzai could have won without any rigging at all. But he apparently could not bring himself to trust the people or the democratic system to which he is in theory committed. As a matter of principle the outside powers should press for the most thorough investigation of fraud and for a second round if need be. But, with or without that second round, it has to be unhappily concluded that this election has made things worse rather than better in Afghanistan." (09/09/2009)

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The German parliament, or Bundestag, this week passed the so-called Begleitgesetze (accompanying laws) to the Lisbon Treaty. Germany's constitutional court ruled in July that the Lisbon Treaty was compatible with the German constitution but that the German parliament should have more say in EU decisions. The left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau comments on the new law: "[One can] …safely conclude: in future the Bundestag and the Bundesrat [representing the 16 German Länder at the federal level] will have a little more say as regards what goes on in oh-so-far-away Brussels. … You could also say that the Bundestag has restricted itself to the realistic, democratically required and future-oriented elements of the Lisbon ruling. On the one hand it has paved the way for European decisions (perhaps) being made more transparent and with more parliamentary participation in this country; on the other hand it has avoided limiting the leeway of future governments and reducing their representatives in Brussels to lame ducks." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Michael Bergius

On October 2 this year Ireland will once more hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, after rejecting it last year. But the EU has no plan B should the Irish once more reject the Treaty, the daily Delo complains: "If all that follows on the Treaty of Nice is the Treaty of Nice, Sweden - as current holder of the EU Council presidency - will have to pick up all the pieces. The first and most important task in the process will be set by the negotiations over a new European Commission. Because according to the Treaty of Nice, the number of EU Commissioners must be less than the number of EU member states. However the heads of government of the then 15 member states did not specify how the Union's 'government' should be made smaller." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Bozo Masanovic

Poland is planning a new law that will make the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) even more dependent on the government. The IPN houses files on former collaborators with the Communist state security service. The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita levels criticism at the law: "The IPN legislation project makes this authority subordinate to the government and thus makes it dependent on those who have no interest in revising our recent past. This is nothing less than the introduction of censorship. The IPN has ended up losing its right to exist. The provision under which the director of the institute can be replaced by a simple majority in parliament puts him at the mercy of those who happen to have the majority. In the past this required a 60-percent majority. … It is unlikely that a director who is at the mercy of those in power will do anything that could lead to his own resignation." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Bronislaw Wildstein

The Romanian Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu last week cancelled a visit to the Dutch government because the latter had published a report criticising the judicial reform in Romania. He later however changed his mind and explained that he would travel to The Hague after all. Cristian Ghinea comments in the daily România Liberă: "What annoys me most about the whole affair is that it's supposed to look as if we have some kind of dignity when it comes to the subject of 'corruption'. No, we have no dignity if we attack people on issues where we have problems. … I also find it sad to read what some commentators and serious bloggers who have adopted these ideas say, along the lines of: Look, Diaconescu has defended our national dignity, he reacted in the right way to the Netherlands, who interfere in everything anyway. How can we claim to have reached the point where we can consider ourselves dignified if we declare solidarity with corruption? … We think we have the right to preen ourselves when it comes to corruption, of all things? That's dumb, and what's more, it's wrong. For then no one will be able to believe us any more." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Cristian Ghinea

Representatives of the world's major religions gathered yesterday at a so-called "peace meeting" of the Catholic Community of Sant-Egidio in the former extermination camp at Auschwitz in Poland, to render tribute to the victims of National Socialism. Michael Kubler writes in the Catholic daily La Croix on the differing interpretations of the Holocaust: "An unprecedented event? Not everyone will agree. Religious people all over the world do acknowledge that Hitler's project to eliminate the Jewish people was extremely vile. But whether it was an absolutely unique event in history is a contended issue - especially for the numerous believers who do not recognise the Jews as the vessel of an exclusive divine project. Nevertheless there are very few locations - as proven by yesterday's event at Auschwitz, the first at such a high level - which make the 'mystery of iniquity' so tangible . This mystery gnaws at men's hearts to such an extent that they deny their brothers' very humanity. This is what gives this particular experience its universal quality." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Michel Kubler

Miklós Mitrovits writes in the Hungarian liberal weekly paper Élet és Irodalom on commemorations of the Hitler-Stalin Pact in view of current relations between Poland and Russia: "A documentary film produced by the state television station Russia TV recently caused a furore in Poland. In the film, broadcast to mark the 70th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Russian historians state no less than that Poland was partly responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War. ... One thing is clear: Poland was not responsible in the least for the outbreak of World War II. ... Public emotion was artificially stoked on the aniversary of the Pact solely for political reasons. Russian history - of both Czarist and Soviet times - is indispensable for creating a new nationalist-imperialist consciousness. ... For Poland it is indispensable that Polish-Russian relations should be based on a full understanding of the historical truth and an acknowledgement of past mistakes. In Russia however people take a different view of things." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Miklós Mitrovits

The conservative daily Lidové Noviny comments on the EU's plans to help dairy farmers by funding their advertising campaigns: "Once again Brussels has hatched a great plan for wasting taxpayers' money on individual groups. This time the dairy farmers are to receive more state aid. The agricultural ministers have decided to support advertising for dairy products, even though the Union is already intervening on the dairy market. … It's a fact that even tripling milk subsidies wouldn't save the farmers. US farmers took a different approach. They capped the supply to boost milk prices. This is the only sensible solution in addition to further refining dairy products." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Jaroslav Plesl

Spain came off badly in the latest Education at a Glance report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The conservative daily ABC calls on the government to take action: "The OECD confines itself to pointing out that there are still grave deficits in our education system. The Ministry of Education must present a plan that will lead to the necessary [all-party] pact as quickly as possible. An adolescent who slides into the dynamics of school failure is a candidate for developing behaviour that is damaging to himself, the family and all society. … It's not enough to distribute computers if you don't offer youths a life project which includes a good academic education and certain basic rules of social conduct." (09/09/2009)

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The system for Bachelors and Masters degrees introduced across Europe by the Bologna Process has increased the number of university students. But contrary to what many people argue this has not led to a decrease in the quality of education, writes the daily De Standaard: "With the flexible BA - MA system, 18-year-olds have more lead time to bridge the gap between high school and university, and universities can enrol more students. That is not a bad thing. ... Today the focus of university education is no longer on the transmission of expertise, but above all on the transmission of intellectual capacities. The question is no longer: 'What did you study?' but 'Do you understand what you studied, and can you apply this knowledge in other, more complex situations?' Hence the conclusion is unavoidable that university graduates today are far better equipped to make use of their competitive edge on the job market than they were 20 or 30 years ago." (09/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Filip Verhoest

The Finnish daily Keskisuomalainen urges Finland to do a better job of selling its competences in the transmission of knowledge, confirmed by its excellent level of reading skills, on the international market: "Finland could put itself on the map as the land of reading [skills]. The only problem is that we can't simply wrap up this know-how and export it. Instead we should create new schooling products for export. There is already demand for such products both in prosperous Western countries and in developing countries. Boosting reading skills is of great importance for developing countries. It's the key to growth, prosperity, equality and even better health. In the area of development aid Finland could focus more on improving reading and writing skills in developing countries. As regards prosperous Western countries which need guidance for developing reading skills, Finland should learn to demand a fair price for passing on knowledge." (09/09/2009)

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