An Icelandic referendum on a payout to foreign savers who lost their savings following the collapse of Icelandic banks in 2008 will hardly solve Iceland's financial problems, the daily Politiken comments: "The angry Vikings' problem at the moment is that a referendum won't put a stop to money transfers to foreign countries. A 'No' from the population will warm things up in the short term, but at the cost of explosive interest rates for the enormous foreign debts: Iceland's credit rating would plunge even further and affect finances. As an independent nation that for years exploited its role outside the EU to create an artificial level of prosperity Iceland can't evade reality simply by holding a referendum."    (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Iceland

Iceland is delaying the repayment of debts to foreign depositors pending a referendum to be held on the subject. The daily The Guardian sees no alternative to repayment: "In the end, of course, Icelanders took too many risks and their banks collapsed, among them Landsbanki, which owned Icesave. The national fabric described by the president is being torn. Icelanders resent being strong-armed into compensating foreign savers, and they particularly dislike Britain's use of anti-terror laws to freeze Icelandic accounts. But whatever the outcome of the referendum, they will have to pay. An earlier version of the law, passed last August, commits the country to starting repayments in 2016. Back in the boom years, banks liked to boast that they were too big to fail. Iceland's bad luck is to be small and weak, and to have failed spectacularly. The world can insist on getting its cash back." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Banks, » United Kingdom, » Iceland

The Icelandic daily Fréttablaðið partly defends the decision of President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to let the people have the final say on the compensation law for foreign savers who deposited their money with Icelandic bank Icesave: "He has drawn harsh criticism, some of it justified, some of it undeserved. But not just the president is responsible for this turn of affairs in the Icesave issue. In allowing the people to make the decision he is reacting to thousands upon thousands of Icelanders who put their signature to the civil initiative 'InDefence', and also thirty MPs who supported the decision to hold a referendum. They all bear the responsibility along with the president for intervention in the international dispute over Icesave. The president had already announced two years ago that he would consult the people rather than acting alone." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » United Kingdom, » Netherlands, » Iceland
All available articles from » Jón Kaldal

After Iceland's refusal to sign an agreement with the Netherlands and the UK on repaying savings deposits, loans by the International Monetary Fund and Scandinavian countries to Iceland have become unsound. The Icelandic president is damaging his country with his move, writes the liberal daily NRC Handelsblad: "Icelanders would have to pay dearly for the repayment, which works out to 12,000 euros per person. They are the victims of the global financial crisis, but also of the fact that Iceland had a huge financial sector which far outstripped the country's scope. Iceland committed itself to a settlement with guarantees at a time when it still considered itself well protected by the prosperity of its extensive banking sector. The repayment to the British and Dutch depositors to whom these countries advanced the money is a natural consequence of this arrangement. Guarantees are irrevocable. The president has done untold damage to the trustworthiness of his country." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Economic Policy, » United Kingdom, » Netherlands, » Iceland

Boris Zankov, a former Bulgarian radio journalist and author of a book exposing the mafia was shot down on a street in the centre of Sofia on Tuesday. In his blog Ivo Indjev expresses indignation at the interior ministry's claims of success in the battle against organised crime and even accuses the state of protecting crime: "Against this background the statement by Interior Minister Zvetan Zvetanov on Bulgarian national radio, according to which the raid against 'the cheeky devils' [the nickname of a group of notorious kidnappers] was a hard blow to organised crime sounds extremely embarrassing. It turns out that 'the cheeky devils' are showing no sign of respect. On the contrary, we, the taxpayers, the voters, respect them. … There can be no worse criminals than those who enjoy the protection of the state." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Ivo Indjev

The debate over intensified security measures following the failed terrorist attack on a US aircraft in Detroit exposes once again the conflict between security and freedom. The left-liberal daily La Repubblica criticises demands for increased use of body scanners: "Even in difficult times politicians must keep a cool head and not give in to emotion or the temptation to believe that the answer to terrorism necessarily involves curtailing freedom. This is not the first time that enthusiasm for technology guides the hands of politicians by distorting reality and conjuring up solutions that could prove to be dangerous and inefficient. … The true responsibility [for the Detroit attack] lies with the [US] defence system, not with technology." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Europe, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Stefano Rodotà

In the UK's general elections slated for spring 2010 it could come to a neck-and-neck race between the Labour Party and the Conservatives. British daily The Independent points out that the time has come for the Liberal Democrats to make their mark: "There's nothing like the hint of power to boost a party's popularity. With the opinion polls pointing to the possibility of a hung parliament, the Liberal Democrats are being unsubtly wooed by both the Labour and Conservative leaderships. This attention is already raising the profile of the third largest party and its leader, Nick Clegg. It is often said that the third force in British politics lacks a clear 'selling point' of the sort they had in the 2005 election on Iraq. This new spike in exposure is thus a golden opportunity for Mr Clegg to tell the public what is distinctive about the Liberal Democrats in their attitude to Europe, the voting system, civil liberties, the environment and on securing economic recovery." (06/01/2010)

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

Former US secretary of State Henry Kissinger once quipped that he'd like just one telephone number for calling Europe. Viliam Buchert writes in the daily Mladá Fronta Dnes that with its new EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton Europe can finally be dialled direct: "But even if he can call us up, his call still won't settle a thing. ... The original goal of a common foreign and security policy was to make the EU a true global player. But what is the result? Notwithstanding all the effort and big words in the final documents of summit meetings, the continent is now weaker than ever. Outside its own territory the Union doesn't influence a thing in today's world. People still consider Europe a significant economic entity. But decisions that command respect are taken elsewhere. In the US, yes, and in recent times in China and perhaps soon in India or Brazil." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Viliam Buchert

Forget about economic cycles. Nowadays it's all about cycles of discontent with economic models, writes Harold James, historian at Princeton University, in the business paper Világgazdaság: "The nineteenth century was mesmerized by the cyclical behavior of business. The French economist Clement Juglar became famous for establishing that business cycles ran for around nine or ten years. We have recently had our own cycles of exuberance and disintegration. But they are very different. In the nineteenth-century world, people rapidly picked themselves up after downturns and went back to business as usual. In that sense, the phenomenon of the business cycle looked relatively permanent and unchanging. Nowadays, however, a cyclical collapse comes as a great surprise. In its aftermath, we start to reinvent our view of economics. Every ten years or so, we think that a particular model of growth is so broken that it cannot be resurrected. The world needed to be rethought in 1979, 1989, 1998, and 2008." (05/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Global
All available articles from » James Harold

Several European states want to establish a modern energy network in the North Sea, linking offshore wind turbines with other green energy sources. The business paper Financial Times Deutschland speaks well of the plan: "Offshore wind generators already produce enormous amounts of energy, but they can't supply it at a constant rate. If these turbines are connected to other renewable energy sources like hydropower, tidal and solar plants to form a single network, natural fluctuations can be compensated for. So the question is not whether a common energy network makes sense, but how quickly such a vision can be put into practice with tangible investments. ... Even if this means more competition for some companies, the large providers will definitely be interested in building up a common network because their own structures transgressed national borders long ago." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Germany

Statistics show that 103 kiosks were robbed in 2009. Now many owners are fighting back and purchasing weapons, and one agressor has been shot by a kiosk owner. The daily Der Kurier is alarmed: "The silent majority no doubt thinks that the owner was right to reach for his gun. No wonder: victims of such crimes can't expect much public support. Nevertheless, keeping a gun stashed away under the counter can't be the solution. The owner who brandished his firearm is lucky to have escaped unscathed - because the robber was just carrying a starter gun. For all the complaints about police inadequacies, it's always better to leave fighting crime to the pros and avoid spending all your time shaking with fear." (05/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Austria
All available articles from » Eva Gogala

The Spanish government has presented the parliament with a report on the success of the smoking ban introduced four years ago and which is due to be intensified this year. The leftist daily Público expresses surprise at the statistics: "Health Minister Trinidad Jiménez sent the Spanish Congress of Deputies a report on how healthy the impact of banning smoking was at workplaces, on public transport and in public places on January 23, when the deputies were already on holidays. The report says that the number of people hospitalised because of heart attacks went down by 10 percent. … It adds that more than a million people (a reduction of 8 percent) quit smoking in the first two years after the law went into effect four years ago. However tobacco sales decreased by only 2.8 percent in 2006, which in addition to being disproportionate is also wondrous indeed." (06/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Health and Medicine, » Spain
All available articles from » Luis Díez

The face of Switzerland has changed dramatically in the last 50 years and the country has been defaced by waves of unchecked construction, writes Klaus Ewald in his book Die ausgewechselte Landschaft (the replacement landscape), reviewed by the daily Tages-Anzeiger: "As far as its scarce territory goes, Switzerland tends to 'turn everything it can into gold and get rid of everything it can't'. Growth and prosperity have robbed Switzerland of its cosiness. This book comes at an opportune moment: soon eight million people will live in Switzerland. A hundred years ago the population stood at half that many, and debates over the limits of population growth (and immigration) are in full swing. Solutions are called for to prevent the 'sea of houses' from flooding the agrarian landscape." (05/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Claudio Habicht

The Swedish government decided in December to issue hunting permits for 27 wolves. In the daily Göteborgs Posten nature conservationist Gunnar Gillberg is disappointed: "Seen in this light the decision to open the wolf hunt is scandalous, and will badly damage Sweden's reputation as an environmentally conscious nation that shoulders responsibility for biodiversity. Put another way, it will be difficult for Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren to comment on how Russia, China and India manage their tiger or snow leopard populations when we can't even ensure that our wolves will survive." (05/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Sweden