It will be difficult to reach a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, writes Jorma Hernesmaa in the daily Etelä Saimaa: "The rift between the industrial, emerging and developing nations is simply too large. The Third World countries want promises of billion-dollar aid packages before they will agree to a timetable for lowering emissions. ... The EU wants to lead the way but finds it hard to reach an agreement with the worst polluters China and the US. ... Furthermore people are saying that emission rights are unreliable and difficult to control. All of these discussions limit people's trust in the entire system, even if it's difficult - as on other issues - to reach a global consensus." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Jorma Hernesmaa

The inflexibility of China and the US threatens to dash the goals of the climate summit in Copenhagen, the liberal conservative daily Corriere della Sera writes: "The conference reached a dead end yesterday. This means that 48 hours before the negotiations come to an end on Friday the danger of failure is becoming real. ... The atmosphere is extremely tense. A new draft for a compromise is circulating which is said to be even more generalised than the previous one. … The main reason for the tension is the battle between the US and China. … The European Union says that Americans and Chinese must do more, but yesterday failed to present new proposals. … The strongest appeal came yesterday from Pope Benedict XVI. He equated the abuse of the planet … with war and terrorism. Strong words. But time is running out in Copenhagen." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Danilo Taino

Given how sceptical and opposed to the Kyoto Protocol the US was only a few years ago the climate conference is a success, columnist Willem Breedveld writes in the daily Trouw: "The naïve belief [that climate change can be stopped by technical means] has in recent years been replaced by the more realistic recognition that we would be taking a huge risk which (if things go wrong) we wouldn't be able to justify to our children and children's children. … Until recently the climate wasn't even on the agenda in dictatorial countries. We have the democracies to thank for the fact that we have come this far, also because they can't (yet?) afford to pass on the bill for climate adjustment to their voters all too rudely. They're too cautious, if you ask me. But their caution at least carries the promise that the course will really be changed in the coming years and - who knows - Copenhagen will go down in history as a triumph for democracy."  (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Willem Breedveld

If they want to be successful, climate researchers and environmental ministers must above all convince public opinion in their own countries, writes Clive Crook in the Financial Times: "National politics - the democratic process - is awfully inconvenient sometimes, but cannot be waved away. The climate-science establishment - scientists subscribing to the global warming consensus and most governments, judging by words not deeds - understands this. ... This is why the Copenhagen meeting has a theatrical aspect; it is as much about public relations as about serious efforts to confront global warming. ... Governments should be honest and base their case for action on what they know - that is, on a balance of probabilities, not on exaggerated certainties. The public, they will find, can cope. Voters are not fools." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Clive Crook

US President Barack Obama has announced the first step towards closing down the controversial  Guantánamo Bay prison. Most of the detainees are to be transferred to a prison in Illinois. According to the daily Diário de Notícias the timing of the announcement was no mere coincidence: "Guantánamo one of the most awkward topics on Barack Obama's political agenda, after he promised to distance himself from [the policy of George W.] Bush's government on this issue. At the same time Obama doesn't want to alienate public opinion, which since the 9/11 attacks has been very sensitive on security matters. … Obama seems determined to win this political battle and couldn't have chosen a more opportune moment [for the transfer], coming as it does between his trip to Oslo, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and his next trip to Copenhagen, where he will attend the 15th climate conference which it is hoped will see the signing of an international agreement."  (16/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S.

Shortly after the Swiss ban on minarets, the former spokesman for the Geneva mosque Hafid Ouardiri has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the grounds that the ban violates religious freedom. But he has little chance of success, writes the Berner Zeitung: "According to Ouardiri's lawyers, Switzerland cannot implement the ban on minarets should the Court grant his suit. ... According to the Swiss professor of criminal law Stefan Trechsel, former president of the European Commission for Human rights and currently a judge at the Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague, the chances for the complaint are not particularly good. ... The European Court of Human Rights is just a sort of emergency brake, he says. First of all the case must be tried by the Swiss courts, right up to the Supreme Court. And on top of that, the plaintiffs are not personally affected by the minaret ban, because they hadn't filed a request to construct a minaret." (15/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Switzerland, » Europe

The UN Security Council has prolonged the mandate of the UN peacekeeping forces in Cyprus for an additional six months. The daily Phileleftheros writes that with its decision the United Nations is trying to gloss over the realities of the situation: "The contents of the decision clearly show it is intended to avoid influencing the direct negotiations in any way. As usual the UN is trying to maintain the 'same distance' to the conflicting parties. But in so doing it often creates circumstances that are far from the objective reality. Its attempt to cling to the status quo causes it to avoid objective documentation of events, such as [in 2004] in the case of the report of the UN Secretary General when there was the attempt to embellish the Turkish Attila invasion [of 1974] to make it look like it was a step in the right direction." (16/12/2009)

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A special group set up by the public prosecutor's office to tackle organised crime on Tuesday brought charges against former defence minister and current Minister for the Environment Karl Erjavec as well as former chief of staff of the Slovenian army Albin Gutman. The two men are implicated in a corruption scandal involving the purchase of tanks from the Finnish firm Patria. These charges are just the beginning, the daily Dnevnik writes: "We will see whether the accused are guilty of having accepted bribes in return for making sure Patria was awarded the contract in Slovenia back in 2005 and 2006. How was it the chairman of Patria put it? Business in Slovenia was conducted according to the local customs. What exactly this entails he didn't explain, but what he was implying is clear. Today we repeat what we wrote a year ago when Slovenia's new Prime Minister Borut Pahor put together his government: Karl Erjavec should not have been made minister again, and he should never again have been entrusted with public funds." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Rok Praprotnik

With its deficit having climbed to an estimated 13 percent of it gross domestic product Greece is facing national bankruptcy. The conservative daily Die Welt seeks to explain the country's negative development: "The course which Greece has taken does not offer enough possibilities for getting the country back on its feet. ... Greece has increasingly modelled itself on Europe in the past decades. ... Before then it had a self-assured mission as the 'North of the South', but then it was reduced more and more to a secondary role as the 'South of the North', a role which was sweetened with funding and its presence on the European stage. ... Yet basically Greece has very good cards: its trade relations with the Arab and Eastern European world, its affinities with the religions and cultures of the Middle East, its plethora of tiny 'colonies' in all the cities and islands of the eastern Mediterranean. The country should really have thrived since the divided world of Yalta came to end." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Gerd Held

The company France Télécom has conducted a survey of 100,000 employees on job-related risks, after 33 workers committed suicide within just two years. Stefan Ulrich writes in the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that all of France is caught up by the issues at stake : "Like Télécom, France itself is changing rapidly. In former times people between the Atlantic and the Rhine lived in a very French sort of capitalism. ... Today they are faced with the fact that this system no longer works. ... It is remarkable how the French are dealing with these changes. Far from averting its eyes and muddling along, the nation is on a quest for self-knowledge. If God still lives in France, he's no longer enjoying the same savoir-vivre. He has become more reflective, more contemplative. France Télécom's employee survey is symptomatic. All of France is thinking about how work environments may be rendered more humane despite globalisation. Right up to the president, everyone is asking if not only growth, but also the happiness of each and every individual should define a country's economic performance." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Stefan Ulrich

Global warming continues to have a strong effect on global migration, writes William Lacy Swing, director of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in the daily Le Temps: "Today many new climate migrants simply can't make a living from their land and are forced to move to over-populated and often unhealthy urban neighbourhoods where they suffer from xenophobia and violence. This migration clearly demonstrates that the international community must seek to reduce the migration consequences of climate change on vulnerable populations in Africa and around the world. ... Africa remains more vulnerable than ever to the effects of climate change and the degradation of the environment. A reduction of 50 percent of its agricultural production due to water shortages would harm 70 percent of its population. ... These countries will not be able to meet these challenges unless they start integrating climate alteration and its impact in their development policies. And this won't be possible without the technical and financial support of the industrial countries largely responsible for these disturbances." (16/12/2009)

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Ireland has introduced a CO2 tax. This is proof that the battle against climate change is a top priority for the Irish government, leader of the Irish Greens John Gormley writes in the conservative newspaper The Evening Herald: "Every euro we spend on petrol, oil, gas or coal means money leaving this island, because we import the vast bulk of our fossil fuels. So if we reduce energy consumption or replace it with renewable energy produced at home, we will make Ireland more competitive and keep more cash in the economy. In last week's Budget, we introduced a carbon tax with this in mind. The aim of the levy is similar to that of the plastic bag tax. We want to encourage people to use less fossil fuels. We are also going to use that money to invest 130 million euros in insulating thousands of homes across the country.” (15/12/2009)

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Boeing's long-haul carrier the 787 Dreamliner has completed its maiden voyage. The online edition of the Polish news magazine Polityka praises the model's fuel efficiency: "The successful start of the B787 is above all good news for the [Polish state airline] LOT and some 50 other airline companies that have ordered a total of 840 of these super modern aircraft. ... But apart from its security aspects, this model's cost-effectiveness will be decisive for its success on the market. In a few years fuel will be very expensive once again, and here the Dreamliner beats its competitors hands down." (16/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Paweł Wrabec

Lithuanian pensioners have been demonstrating for several days in Vilnius for better living standards. The daily Lietuvos Rytas expresses understanding for their position and says society as a whole is to blame: "These old people are absolutely right, and we, the younger generation, are to blame because we can't manage to earn enough and pay enough tax to make the lives of our parents, the losers of the totalitarian era, at least a little more comfortable. ... Employees are entitled to a pension once they retire, but there is no fixed amount. It depends on the financial situation of the state. This is the way it has always been and this is how it always will be, and no amount of honey-tongued promises from the opposition will change this. The financial leeway is limited, also as a result of the fact that we don't work efficiently enough and are therefore not so competitive. The politicians should say this clearly so that people don't delude themselves and at least there's less lying." (16/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Demographics, » Economic Policy, » Lithuania
All available articles from » Ramune Sotvariene

Iranian opposition figures have covered their heads and started the Internet campaign "Men in Headscarves" in solidarity with a jailed student leader. The left-leaning daily Avgi welcomes the idea: "The government is saying that the student leader wore a headscarf to avoid being arrested [and have disseminated a photograph showing him in a headscarf]. The opposition bloggers insist it was a photomontage. ... Hamid Dabasi, professor of Iranian studies at New York's Columbia University, says the regime's attempt to humiliate the opposition is having a boomerang effect. 'Thousands of Iranians have followed the opposition's call and taken similar photos to show that there is nothing wrong either with their women or with their headscarves,' he says. This reaction shows two things: the opposition have a sense of humour and imagination (as opposed to the government and its supporters), and they are remaining active despite harsh police measures." (16/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Iran