The agreement at the Nuclear Security Summit to boost protection against nuclear threats from terrorists is deceptive, write the left-liberal La Repubblica, because Iran is not among the signatories: "The mechanism US President Obama has dreamed up will never really become effective as long as the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei and his circle of millenialists. The danger is that the entire Arab world equips itself with nuclear weapons following Tehran's example. Out of fear and also for many other reasons the regimes that border on Iran could never accept the position of weakness which a Persian nuclear missile would put them in. ... The impressive machinery of hope that was presented by 47 states yesterday will begin to falter without the presence of the 48th state, Iran." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Guido Rampoldi

The US's nuclear strategy is inconsistent, writes the daily Delo: "For several years now both the opponents of nuclear weapons and their wiser advocates have pointed out that the main problem with the US's nuclear weapon strategy is that these weapons are supposed to deter nuclear attacks from other countries. ... As long as the most powerful state in the world can threaten with nuclear attacks to prevent the attacks of other states there is no reason why other countries shouldn't take the same line. Like Iran, for example, that has been convinced by events in its neighbouring state of Iraq that equipping itself with nuclear weapons is the only successful defence. The truth about the deceitful war against Iraq is perfectly simple: Iraq was not invaded because it was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, but rather they took the risk of attacking it precisely because it lacked those weapons." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Boris Cibej

The US's nuclear policy is based on the premise that it can protect its territory with fewer nuclear weapons than up to now - even with the threat posed by North Korea and Iran, writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "To deter its enemies and reassure its allies the US has made it clear that the reduced role of nuclear weapons in the security dispositive does not mean a military weakening. Defence Minister Gates points out that progress has been made in missile defence. Moreover the US has another arrow in its quiver: long-range missiles with convention warheads. ... [Foreign Minister] Clinton stressed that America has expressly not ruled out being the first country to use nuclear weapons, however only against countries that have nuclear weapons and ignore the non-proliferation treaty. This clearly graduated stance should make clear what they must reckon with to countries like North Korea and Iran." (13/04/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S.
All available articles from » Beat Ammann

Politicians belonging to the national conservative Law and Justice Party [PiS] of Lech Kaczyński, the Polish president who died in a plane crash on the weekend, have criticised acting president Bronislaw Komorowski of the liberal-conservative Civic Platform party for already having nominated successors to the chiefs of security and the chancellery of the presidency, who also died in the crash. The daily Gazeta Wyborcza has no sympathy with such complaints: "Jacek Michałowski, who has been nominated to lead the chancellery of the president, is an unpolitical official who works a lot, not a politician who was lucky enough to wangle a good post. The nomination of Stanisław Koziej to chief of the BBN [National Security Bureau] is a bow to the opposition, because Koziej was deputy defence minister in the PiS government. The two posts have to be filled because the state must continue to function. ... And both can be relieved from office at any time." (14/04/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Dominika Wielowieyska

The British think tank International Policy Network (IPN) has revealed that the Brussels offices of the ten largest environmental associations receive annual EU subsidies amounting to 8.7 million euros. The daily Maaseudun Tulevaisuus agrees in part with IPN environment programme director Caroline Boin's criticism of such practices: "Notwithstanding all the pretty words about EU democracy, Brussels is a true snake's nest of lobbyists. Entire industrial sectors and big business maintain powerful offices there to keep a close eye on decision makers. In general it is important that NGOs should be on location to bring across their points of view. Yet it is entirely legitimate to ask whose lobby work is financed by EU funds. The question is particularly significant for those unable to push their own interests in Brussels. For the most part NGOs are firmly critical of EU policy. By giving its critics' financial support, the EU selects its court jesters, finances and tames them at the same time." (14/04/2010)

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

Hungary's political landscape has radically changed after Sunday's parliamentary elections. The right-wing parties will dominate events over the next four years, writes author Rudolf Ungváry in the left-liberal daily Népszabadság: "What had to happen has happened. Hungary's Right … has come into its own. In actual fact it has been a majority for years, but reality disguised this. ... The right-wing Hungary that went under in 1945 and whose language and symbols were thrust aside has been reborn today. Its populist majority has gathered behind Fidesz boss Viktor Orbán. It expects authority, order and a paternalistic state - no more. ... The right-wingers who are most susceptible to the demagogy (16.7 percent) see above all the neo-Nazi ideas of the ultra-right Jobbik party as a guarantee for the salvation of the nation, and there is no clear demarcating line between them and Fidesz. ... No one can contend with the united Right today." (13/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Rudolf Ungváry

Plans by the French government to raise the retirement age have met with resistance. French economist Jacques Bichot explains in an interview with the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that while pension reform is badly needed it must be tackled in a different way: "The situation today is completely archaic. It does all it can to induce the French to up their productivity by retiring later, but it fails to give adequate compensation. All previous reforms have confused retirement age with the duration of pension contributions. The US system is very interesting. You always hear about the pension funds, but there's more to it than that. This system procured a savings surplus of 150 billion dollars in the past year alone. ... On the long term we will need at least seven years to revamp the system, introduce a point structure and unify the various schemes." (13/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Jacques Bichot

The Czech Republic could have made more progress in the 20 years since the Velvet Revolution, writes economist and former presidential candidate Jan Švejnar in his blog on the Aktuálně.cz portal: "Gone are the times when US and English students commonly wrote essays on the uniqueness of Czechoslovakian democracy between the two world wars. We have achieved a lot since 1989, but less than we could have from a historical perspective. Countries like Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland had a worse starting position and have nonetheless caught up with or overtaken us. ... I am convinced that the Czech Republic needs a change in political style. It needs a new generation of politicians. We need to open the door to politics to people who don't just want to get rich but want to serve their country. ... The Czech Republic needs its citizens' trust in their political representation to be restored; it needs a new 'social contract' that will inject fresh blood into our too easily paralysed democracy." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Jan Švejnar

The problems of young people on the labour market affect society as a whole, the weekly Expresso writes, criticising the lack of groups to represent their interests: "Although they are better educated than previous generations they only end up with precarious ... and poorly paid jobs. It is easy to find young people who earn half of what someone aged 40 who does more or less the same work earns. The concept of life-long jobs has changed. But this should lead to changes in several political initiatives, above all those pertaining to employees' mobility. Because young people don't have secure jobs they have difficulties buying a home ... . Without a good income young people don't start families, ... they live without hope or perspectives. ... This is a national problem - it doesn't just affect a minority. Perhaps this is precisely the tragedy. There is no lobby, no party, no union to defend them." (14/04/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Labour, » Portugal

Romania has presented its so-called convergence programme for achieving a balanced budget to the EU. The country's budgetary deficit is currently at eight percent. Entry to the Eurzone has become more of a challenge, writes the daily România Liberă: "The convergence programme has poured oil on troubled waters. For without exaggerating it offers the chance to show that Bucharest won't follow in the footsteps of Athens and Sofia. What the problems concerning the introduction of the euro are in the long term is clear. ... The case of Greece shows that countries that are not competitive have no place in the Eurozone. ... The competitive countries have closed the doors to the Eurozone for who knows how many years to defend the entity on which they have been working for more than four decades. And those who remain outside have begun to think ten times more about it before they ask to join." (14/04/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Financial Markets, » Romania
All available articles from » Ilie Serbanescu

According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice concerning a case in Belgium, EU states may limit the number of university places open to foreign medical students if there is the risk of a shortage of doctors in the country. The daily Die Presse writes that despite the ruling Austria should not discriminate against foreign medicine students: "Is it not ultimately a matter of indifference for health care whether a doctor is German, Austrian or Slovakian? Isn't the real question how we can keep enough of those we educate in our country? Perhaps we should motivate some of our own students to study at other, even better universities, or concentrate on making a profitable business out of our universities and the quality education they offer. And that's not all we could do to turn the situation to our advantage. But when it comes to university quotas our policy is the same as for asylum: what counts is scaring away as many people as we can." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Wolfgang Böhm

Allegations of sexual abuse have now also been levelled against priests of the relatively small Catholic Church in Sweden. Catholic doctor Bengt Malmgren warns in his blog on the portal Newsmill against premature condemnation of the Church: "You can't praise Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI for having done everything right. Nevertheless it is incorrect in the present situation to say that he has dealt too hesitantly with cases of sexual assault in the Catholic Church. ... Even if it was tardy in reacting, it must be said that few institutions have subjected themselves to such intense scrutiny over the abuse of minors as the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict has adopted an offensive attidute and is firmly resolved to get a grip on the problem. If the Catholic Church finds an effective means for doing so it will provide a seminal, much needed approach for other areas of society. But making the Church a scapegoat will only help society sweep the problem under the carpet." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Bengt Malmgren

The hope that blogs will break down the dominance of the large media has proved false, writes Viktor Mayer-Schönberger in the blog Carta: "The truth of the matter is that a very small number of blogs attract the most attention, while most others have very few readers, if any at all. ... What the old and new media landscapes have in common is the relatively limited number of players. ... With the old media this was the result of the lack of resources: the high investment costs of a customised dissemination infrastructure and the finiteness of available frequencies. With the Internet this focus has shifted: it's not the frequencies that are in short supply, but the attention span of recipients. For that reason we've seen a regulative shift from one public good to another. The upshot, however is that the hope that - as an alternative to the solution proposed by [philosopher Jürgen] Habermas - we could reinvent the public sphere of the 18th century by means of the Internet and the new media ... has proved false." (14/04/2010)

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All available articles from » Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

The leftist daily Público sees the most recent statements made by the president of Spain's central bank's as a bad joke: "Up to now Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, the president of the Banco de España, was regarded as a serious man, but the crisis has turned him into a serious candidate for the comedy club. Only yesterday he explained that the huge number of unemployed surrounding us was the major threat to the financial system, ... To explain the joke: Some very respectable institutions provoke an unprecedented crisis with their digressions and accounting fraud. To prevent their bankruptcy the taxpayers have to cough up huge amounts of money. This crisis leaves more than four million without jobs in Spain, who are blamed for the banks' failure to recover. Let's tell the story differently: A guy enters a bar and asks for a drink. The owner of the bar steals his wallet and the customer can no longer pay for the beer. What does the barkeeper say: 'If there are many more people like you I'll have to close the bar'." (14/04/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Spain
All available articles from » Juan Carlos Escudier