The Saville report's conclusion that the victims of Bloody Sunday were innocent comes as a great relief for all those affected and heals the wounds of Irish history, writes the conservative daily The Irish Times: "For weeks now the Bloody Sunday families and the people of Derry have been living on their nerves, carrying a heavy weight of tension and expectation as well as a fear that what Lord Saville produced might be ambivalent, that it could give ammunition to those who would wish the families ill. But there was no equivocation from Lord Saville and this was bolstered by what can only be described as a powerful statement and apology in the House of Commons from British prime minister David Cameron at 3.30 pm. It left a big impression on the families. It was generous and unambiguous. That too is assisting the healing process. When this admission of unjustified killings and the apology from the British government and the British people were relayed by television screen to the people standing outside the Guildhall in Derry, there was a loud cheer and a collective massive sigh of relief. After 38 years the innocence of the dead and injured on Bloody Sunday was officially known to the world." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Gerry Moriarty

This most recent investigation into the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry lasted 12 years during which 900 witnesses were questioned and the statements if 2,500 people were gathered. The left-liberal daily El Periódico de Catalunya praises this most comprehensive report in the history of the British judiciary: "This conclusion doesn't come as a surprise because for decades now no one has doubted that the shots were the result of an 'injustified and injustifiable' action ordered by British officials, as David Cameron said. But this doesn't detract from the value of the report because it re-established the truth, honours the victims and complies with a demand made by the Catholic community. Indeed, without Tony Blair's compromise solution ordering an independent investigation into Bloody Sunday the Republican negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement would have raised enormous obstacles to accepting an end to the violence." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social movements, » History, » United Kingdom, » Ireland

The investigation of Bloody Sunday in Derry shows correctly that the British soldiers acted wrongly, the conservative daily The Times writes, but adds that nevertheless they should not be prosecuted. "The actions of our troops that day, and of everyone who covered it up, were a disgrace. And surely in a country that rests on the rule of law, it would be right to apply the law to those who acted so wrongly on that day. But to prosecute those soldiers - to make them face justice alone - would be terribly wrong. To allow the IRA, or even the broader nationalist community, to choose who should be accountable to the courts and who should not, is unconscionable. Whether or not they committed a crime, the soldiers must now go free." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Daniel Finkelstein

The Saville report on Bloody Sunday will advance the peace process in Northern Ireland, writes the daily Diário de Notícias: "Bloody Sunday was followed by two decades of conflict. The IRA battled against British protestant underground organisations and Great Britain was hit by a wave of bombings in the name of revenge. Peace didn't come until the end of the 1990s, with the Good Friday Agreement which then prime minister Tony Blair initiated together with his Irish counterpart. The future is still uncertain because both sides are pursuing different goals. But both have had the intelligence to set aside violence as a means of resolving their differences. Yesterday another wound of the past was cleansed and a step taken in the direction of peace." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Religion, » History, » United Kingdom, » Ireland

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have spoken out in favour of a European economic government for all 27 states. The initiative is harming the EU, writes the daily Der Standard: "A budget plan for the next few years in EU states is sensible, and presenting it to the Commission and the Council also makes sense. But that this should take place before MPs in the individual member states have been allowed to have their say is without doubt a democratic deficit and raises questions of legitimacy. We are now paying the price for the fact that the founders of the euro, in particular the German chancellor at the time Helmut Kohl, pushed through economic and monetary union but didn't have the courage to take the step towards political integration this required. Kohl's successor Merkel summed it up at her meeting with Sarkozy: 'We are currently going through a rather existential phase in which the future of Europe is at stake.' Merkel and Sarkozy have done nothing to improve the prospects." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Alexandra Föderl-Schmid

Romania's government on Tuesday survived a vote of no confidence tabled by the Romanian opposition. Its package of drastic austerity measures will thus come into force in order to secure further installments of IMF emergency credits. The daily Gândul describes the planned cuts as tantamount to stealing from the population: "To pretend that the cuts are courageous, that they represent a reform and will be useful in the long term is an insult to Romania's citizens. The government [of Prime Minister] Boc has not outlined a plan to get the economy going. Moreover, after having lied to the population about Romania's true situation for at least a year it has not come up with either concrete reform steps or a timetable. The money Romania has borrowed from the IMF, the EU and private banks has in the meantime found its way into the pockets of the [the government Liberal Democratic party] PDL's clientele. This is a case of theft: because no-one is lending it any more money the PDL has resorted to stealing, now from pensioners, like thieves who break into a house at night." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Financial Markets, » Romania
All available articles from » Cristian Tudor Popescu

The Slovenian Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that there would be no further referendum on the controversy of the "erased". In 1992 many citizens of former Yugoslavia were taken off the registers of permanent residents because they had failed to apply for Slovenian citizenship by the deadline set by the government. Now the way has been cleared for the status of these people to be regulated. However, the daily Delo thinks the way the issue has been handled to date is undignified: "All the while individuals have simply become mired in legal red tape and political interests. Their personal tragedies were at best the subject of rhetoric behind which there was no real sympathy. One would have expected the government to admit that the state made a mistake 18 years ago that caused major grievance to thousands of people. One would have expected the government to prepare measures that would restore these people's economic and social rights. ... There is still a long way to go before injustice will be made good again." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Slovenia
All available articles from » Matjaz Albreht

US President Barack Obama has described the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States. In an address to the nation he called for the country's energy policy to be reoriented towards renewables. The business paper Hospodářské noviny agrees with his initiative: "It would be a positive effect of the oil disaster if the United States turned away from fossil fuels. However Obama's vision won't be fulfilled if the Americans oppose it. A proposal for a new energy law has been lying around for months in Congress. Obama, whose reaction to the catastrophe has been hesitant and defective so far, must now prove his leadership and push this law through against the indecisive attitude of the American public. Even if it lessens the chances of his being re-elected, Obama's slogan was once that the time for fundamental change had come. Now the moment has arrived to translate that into action." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » U.S.
All available articles from » Daniel Anýž

The European Union in its present form is threatened with failure, Bernard Guetta writes in the daily Libération. What the EU lacks is political unity and democratic rules, he says: "The EU could fall apart tomorrow. ... It could very quickly go down in history as a missed opportunity. What threatens the EU most is that its people can no longer follow what is going on. Neither on the right nor or the left does the public understand this thing anymore, and no-one knows who is leading it. The apparatus is complicated, functions poorly, and European citizens are right in having the feeling that they can't control its decisions and cannot punish it via the ballot box. Today the EU brings together too many countries - countries that are too different from one another in terms of development and political culture for them to be able to plan the future. ... An effort must be made to save this creative Utopia by reorganising European democracy. In the European elections the European parties should be discussing real programmes. The winner should be able to advance his candidate as President of the Commission. Then the EU Commission would become a government ... of a political union of Europe." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Bernard Guetta

The Italian police have arrested the alleged boss of the powerful Neapolitan Casalesi clan. Nicola Schiavone is suspected of succeeding his father, the notorious "Sandokan", as the top boss of the clan after his father was sentenced to life in prison. In an open letter published by the left-liberal daily La Repubblica Roberto Saviano calls on the father to show remorse and cooperate with the judiciary: "You have been behind bars for ten years. Now they also have your son. Show them that you are still a human being and not just a collection of human tissue that drags itself full of resentment and greed from cell to cell. ... I know you think business is going well now. The economic crisis has given it a boost and legislation is turning into a protective shield for you, because with the new bugging law your son would never have been tracked down and arrested. ... I grew up in the land of the Camorra and I know how you think. Those who fear death and imprisonment are wimps. You and your friends always win because unlike the politicians you're willing to make sacrifices. But sooner or later they'll bring you to your knees. You and your dirty deals with cement, votes and toxic waste. Now you have the chance to at least make up for some of the injustices you have committed. Show your cards. Give up your power. Cooperate with justice." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Roberto Saviano

The EU Commission is urging Spain to introduce more austerity measures than the government has already approved. This could threaten the country's unity, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Zapatero is supposed to economise and boost the economy at the same time - that's practically impossible. Employers say the reforms don't go far enough while the trade unions accuse him of betraying the working class. The EU is praising him but he's becoming isolated at home. ... What will come after Zapatero? The centre-right People's Party has put itself beyond the pale with its unpatriotic obstruction politics. The Spanish will take refuge in their regionalism even more than before; in times of need people cling to the local for support. In particular the parties of the wealthy Catalans and Basques, which so far have played only a minor role in the Madrid parliament, will become stronger. This doesn't bode well for Spanish unity - a situation like that in Belgium looms over the country. Spain has well and truly arrived in the modern age." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Sebastian Schoepp

The Swiss National Council on Tuesday approved a controversial administrative assistance agreement with the US. The agreement will allow the names of 4,450 alleged tax evaders from the United States who have accounts with the Swiss bank UBS to be disclosed to the US tax authority. The liberal daily Corriere del Ticino believes that this incursion into Swiss banking secrecy is tolerable and mocks the loss of face for the conservative Swiss people's party the SVP: "It had sworn to voters that it would do battle against the agreement, which will allegedly bury Swiss banking secrecy. But now it has had to give in. In view of the awkward situation in which the UBS management has put us, at least the country's true interests have been salvaged. An administrative assistance agreement between the UBS and the US that provides for 4,450 names to be passed on is better than a dreadful court case against the UBS aimed at using any means to get at the data of 52,000 customers suspected of tax evasion in the US. Since there is no alternative, the agreement doubtless represents the lesser evil." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Moreno Bernasconi

Polish schools are breaching their obligation to remain silent about the religious denomination of their pupils, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday. The ruling was prompted by the fact that Polish teachers simply put a slash in the religion and ethics category when they don't offer courses in ethics and the pupils don't attend religious education because they don't believe in a Christian god. The liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza welcomes the ruling: "The freedom of conscience and to profess a religion is a fundamental human right. In Poland, the notion that this human right only affects the professing of a religion - namely the Roman Catholic religion - has taken root. There is no mention of the right to remain silent about one's beliefs. ... Our constitutional court is not interested in what happens in practice. Yesterday Strasbourg criticised it for this. This is the first case of such criticism. It doesn't exactly throw a favourable light on Poland's constitutional court. ... In Poland there is not a single public institution that makes an effort to draw attention to the rights of non-believers and pupils who belong to other religions. How embarrassing." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Ewa Siedlecka

The Öresund bridge between the Danish capital Copenhagen and the southern Swedish city of Malmö will turn ten years old at the beginning of July. The link, consisting of a bridge, a tunnel and an artificial island, was initially highly controversial, but in the view of the daily Dagens Nyheter it has in the meantime proven its value: "What has already happened is wonderful enough. Trips across the Sund have become an everyday occurrence - not just for commuters but for anyone who has relatives or friends on the other side or who goes across to enjoy the cultural or shopping opportunities. The idea that it would have been better not to build the bridge today seems absurd. The more serious questions concern further steps towards integration: What will it mean for Malmö that a fixed link is being built across the Fehmarn Belt between Germany and Denmark? When will the time come for a fixed link between Helsingborg [in Sweden] and Helsingör [in Denmark]? The Öresund bridge has made life easier for the people who live near it." (16/06/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Germany, » Denmark, » Sweden

Sporting events can have a positive impact on the host country, Olli Kivinen writes in the daily Helsingin Sanomat, referring to the World Cup in South Africa: "Within the space of 16 years the country has evolved from a dismal Apartheid state to a symbol of hope for Africa. Now it wants to use the democratic changes ... for a tangible and sustainable rise in prosperity. ... Africa needs success stories, and in this endeavour football is really a side issue, although even just the host country's success in organising the World Cup has triggered strong emotions all over Africa. ... Has the current World Cup given South Africa such a kick that it is finding the way to development in an ever more positive direction? Or are the sceptics right to argue that the billions the country has spent on organising the World Cup could have been better invested in resolving the [the country's] problems? Unfortunately, the impact of the World Cup is not really measurable. Nevertheless, it is clear that sensible social and economic policies are the key to success, in Africa as elsewhere. World Cup fever doesn't change that." (16/06/2010)

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All available articles from » Olli Kivinen