French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared a "war on criminality". But by failing to distinguish between population groups he is stigmatising both the French and the European Roma, warns the daily Le Monde: "Sarkozy's mistake isn't to declare 'war' on criminality at a time when insecurity is on the rise, but to lump everyone together. As the guardian of national and social cohesion, it is not fitting for the head of state to blame the entire population of French Roma for a problem sparked off by just one among them. Of the more than 400,000 travellers counted by census in France, 95% are French and two thirds of them have fixed abodes. As for the Roma ... who form a minority, these are not only migrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Romania and Bulgaria. They form a heterogenous population that has been tossed about from one EU country to the next. ... By confusing things in this way the government is opening the door for chimeras and prejudices." (29/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Minorities, » France

The French president has drawn much criticism for his announcement to take steps against "criminal" Roma and dissolve 300 camps. Nicolas Sarkozy is ignoring real social questions in the view of the left-liberal daily Der Standard: "We know that security and law and order are priorities for Sarkozy and that is legitimate. But when the French president draws a connection between criminality and 'the behaviour of some members of the Roma and other groups of no fixed abode' he is resorting to a stereotyped image of the Roma as criminals. Instead of identifying the cause of the problem - namely the gap between the average population and the Roma with respect to housing, education and employment - he makes an ethnic issue out of it. ... Sarkozy, whose name, incidentally, also occurs among Central European Roma families, is not facing up to urgent social questions. The same day he orders a bathtub for his president's aeroplane, he ignores in his Roma policy the fact that the causes of criminality and poverty are linked." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Minorities, » France
All available articles from » Adelheid Wölfl

President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that he intends to take a "hard line" against the Roma in France is a rhetorical manoeuvre designed to distract attention from his own failures, the left-liberal Tages-Anzeiger believes. "Many French people are unlikely to be impressed any more by this martial rhetoric, for most of them are all too aware that since 2002 this president has been almost continuously responsible for internal security in France - first as interior minister and now as head of state. The media always liked to described his style of tackling things head on as 'musclé' - flexing his muscles. He enjoys the loud impact it makes when the police go in and the TV coverage. So when Sarkozy now denounces the deplorable state of affairs and declares an emergency on this front, in the banlieues and among travellers, then he is admitting that his policy has failed. And if the crime statistics really paint such a bad picture as he claims, then his record is bad too. Dreadful in fact. All he can do now is talk, divide and stigmatise. His strategy is easy to see through but carries no guarantee of success." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Minorities, » France
All available articles from » Oliver Meiler

The liberal daily Upsala Nya Tidning condemns President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to take action against the Roma as a disgrace for the entire European Union: "France was once a country shaped by the ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity. The idea of the EU was governed by the same spirit. When President Nicolas Sarkozy uses the power of the nation to throw certain inhabitants out of the country ... he is damaging the ideals and the development of the EU. ... His policy towards the Roma is the expression of a view of collective blame. Sarkozy is digging in the same soil as [the right-wing extremist Hungarian party] Jobbik. Once again people are being driven out, rejected by a society that accuses them of not wanting to integrate. Instead of fighting discrimination and social destitution, it is people who are being targeted. Europe has never wanted to accept that the Roma have a different way of life. ... So lightly do we treat freedom today, so little is equality there, and so alien are our sisters and brothers to us." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » France, » Europe

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday expelled his alliance partner Gianfranco Fini from the governing party People of Freedom (PdL). While Berlusconi's move put an end for the time being to the long smouldering conflict, it may yet prove to be his undoing, the business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore believes: "The break between the founders of People of Freedom makes the government weaker, not stronger. ... So what is the point of it? It undoubtedly gives Berlusconi more comprehensive control over the party, but what use is that when he will still have to haggle with the parliament and autonomous groups over every programme point? ... It only makes sense to challenge the internal party minority, ... if the prime minister is using this to prepare the ground for early elections. [The head of the right-wing populist Lega Nord Umberto] Bossi has no desire to engage in electoral adventures, however, but is simply striving for a federal tax regime." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Italy
All available articles from » Stefano Folli

The British government plans to prevent employers from retiring employees aged 65 who want to go on working. The daily The Times is delighted: "In earlier decades, when employment was dominated by manufacturing, workers were a drag on productivity as they became physically weaker. But in an economy characterised by the provision of services and the application of knowledge, older workers contribute far more. A default retirement age is neither a boon to them nor a way of improving the productivity of the workforce. On the contrary, it adds to one burden that an ageing society does impose, namely the expanding costs of pension provision. The proposal to abolish the DRA would ameliorate that problem by its symbolism. In indicating that older workers have an important contribution to the world of work, the Government may persuade many of them to stay within it. They will pay taxes as well as draw pensions." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » United Kingdom

Switzerland is under pressure to move closer to the EU, yet most Swiss continue to reject EU membership. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sees their point: "The original six-member Community emerged not least as a peace initiative after World War II. Later Britain hoped to rescue part of its faded role as a world power by entering the Community. Ireland and some of the Southern European states sought to join in a bid to raise prosperity. For the states of Eastern Europe EU membership was part and parcel of putting their communist past behind them. Such motives are lacking in the politically unique and economically successful Switzerland. Moreover, in view of growing national debts Switzerland would be more than ever one of the net contributers to the European Union. The Swiss may be convinced Europeans, nevertheless in the EU they would be primarily reluctant members. ... Forging Switzerland's future relations with the EU - without the option of membership - remains the real task at hand." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Switzerland, » Europe
All available articles from » Jürgen Dunsch

Politics in Poland is still overshadowed by the air crash near Smolensk, the foreign affairs editor of Newsweek Polska Jarosław Giziński writes in the conservative weekly Heti Válasz: "Although the Smolensk plane crash happened more than three months ago, the trauma won't go away. ... The Law and Justice Party (PiS), which lost 'its president' Lech Kaczyński and numerous prominent politicians in the accident, can't get over the shock. All the more so because the twin brother of the former head of state lost to the candidate of the governing party Civic Platform Bronisław Komorowski in the presidential elections in July. In the eyes of the opposition PiS that is unjust, for wouldn't a victory for Jarosław Kaczyński have 'compensated' the nationalist-Catholic Right for their loss? ... Although there has so far been nothing to indicate that this was an assassination, conspiracy theories are circulating among the supporters of the former president. They are convinced that the victims of the plane crash, or rather the 'fallen' are really 'martyrs' murdered by their political opponents." (29/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Jarosław Giziński

During the euro crisis France and the US were among the countries that accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of favouring German interests. Jochen Bittner and Jörg Lau write in the liberal weekly Die Zeit that there is nothing new in this attitude on Germany's part: "Would Helmut Kohl really have acted any differently today than Angela Merkel? Would he too not have demanded that the Eurozone be bolstered through regulation? ... Gerhard Schröder was particularly prone to digging in his heels when push came to shove with Europe. In 1999 he put a damper on Brussels' attempt to issue a guideline obliging car manufacturers to take back old cars, for this would have cost VW & co. billions. And fearing that Polish plumbers and Bulgarian nurses would immigrate en masse to the German welfare state, Schröder insisted on delaying the freedom of movement for Europe's new populations after the EU eastward expansions of 2004 and 2007. So let's not say putting German interests first started with Merkel. On the contrary, after Schröder's machismo the chancellor was at first considered someone who would once more show respect even to smaller neighbouring states. ... Now her image has changed." (29/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Germany, » Europe
All available articles from » Jochen Bittner, » Jörg Lau

The chamber of deputies of the Spanish parliament on Thursday voted in favour of the government's labour market reform. Now it will be submitted to the Senate. The business newspaper Expansión criticises the reform, saying it does not meet the needs of the Spanish economy: "The labour market reform will be approved, but it will be neither good nor pretty nor indeed cheap. ... In reality it consists of a few minor steps forward that are complicated and confused and it will only become clear with time whether it can be implemented or not. ... The new labour market reform is a long way off making Spain competitive, as was planned. The Spanish labour market will continue to suffer from its lack of flexibility, perhaps even more so when restrictions are imposed on temporary contracts, which in past years served as a safety valve for companies." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Labour, » Spain

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has promised to invest 20 billion euros, demanding in exchange that the state and employees accept changes to working conditions and be more submissive, writes the daily Delo: "What Marchionne is doing is globalisation in its purest and crudest form. Globalisation likes neither wage agreements nor unions nor chambers of commerce. Yes, he has allowed himself to be pushed somewhat into a corner and agreed to maintain production in Pomigliano near Naples. But in response he has created a new company there which is not a member of the chamber of commerce, has no wage agreements or accords with the unions. ... Now everyone is appalled. The government, which had been focused only on itself rather than on the real world, the chamber of commerce, which loses much of its clout ... without Fiat, as well as the unions are all slowly awakening from their long hibernation. ... The times when everyone could bring their ideological differences into play are over. Marchionne has tossed the century of successful class struggle into the dustbin of history." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Trade unions, » Italy, » Serbia
All available articles from » Tone Hocevar

Most tourists come to Bulgaria to lie on the beach or binge drink on cheap alcohol, writes the daily Standart in disapproval, arguing that the country's cultural treasures should be given a higher profile: "We limit ourselves to showing no more than our bad side, while the good things remain hidden. We have seven Unesco world heritage sites. We have the Thracian culture, which is older than Ancient Greece. We have the oldest gold in Europe at the Varna Necropolis, Roman settlements, Medieval castles and monasteries. ... But all of this remains largely invisible to the world, although it could put Bulgaria in a new light and rake in huge profits from cultural tourism. ... The Black Sea and the bars are all very well, but it's time we started attracting more demanding tourists. That's not going to scare the third-class tourists away." (29/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Architecture / Cities, » History, » Tourism, » Greece, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Konstantin Sabchev

Romanian universities suffer from nepotism, plagiarism and a lack of transparency according to the "Coalition for Clean Universities" comprised of Romanian NGOs, which presented its annual report on Thursday. The daily Gândul shares this assessment: "In the Romanian university hierarchy the easiest way to advance is through inertia. One only needs to exploit the system that over time has become paralysed and resistant to reforms. Hundreds of people holding doctorates, university teachers and lecturers who are promoted every year have a very good chance that they will be protected by the universities and even by the Ministry of Eduation. ... Because no one dares to tackle the problems in higher education. ... The reaction of the universities would be too vehement. This vicious circle is responsible for all kinds of adverse circumstances that determine the entire system:" (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Romania
All available articles from » Raul Florea

Public inspectors have ascertained that the Greek public television station ERT is rife with corruption. The left-liberal daily Ta Nea calls on the broadcaster to end its close ties with politics: "Two things are urgently needed in public television: scandals must be investigated ... and those responsible must be punished. In addition the state television must once more be allowed to fulfil its original function. It must be able to offer what private stations cannot: interesting and high-quality programmes including art programmes, as well as sports broadcasts that don't merely reinforce clichés and fanaticism. Is that possible? Only if ERT can become independent, far from the long arm of the state and party politics, and above all if it can reward top managers for their transparency, achievements and responsibility." (30/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Media policy, » Greece