After the renunciation of plans to build a missile shield in Central Eastern Europe the US must remain an important partner for Poland, writes Bartosz Węglarczyk in the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "Poland still needs its strong ally, the US. The missile shield was to be the basis and now we'll have to wait for some kind of replacement. After the White House's decision yesterday not to build the missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic relations between Warsaw and Washington will have to change. The year 2009 has proven to be the end of close ties [with the US] which endured for quite a long time - around ten years. Nonetheless, this alliance can and must be continued, albeit on a different basis. America remains the world's number one superpower, even if it is losing ground. And its interests and fundamental values coincide with ours." (18/09/2009)

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The Internet portal Aktuálně.cz writes on the US decision to abandon plans for a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic: "Barack Obama inherited the project that involved installing a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile shield in Poland from his predecessor. George W. Bush's team had already concluded agreements with the Czech and Polish governments when they left office. Right from the start Obama adopted a curious attitude to the whole thing for three reasons: the high costs, the questionable reliability of the system and last but not least the Kremlin's loud objections to the project. Arguing in favour of the project were the White House's efforts to protect the world from Iran and to honour promises made to its allies. ... In the end domestic political problems in the Czech Republic and Poland [in making the project appealing to their own populations] gave the new government an additional argument for stopping the project. ... Critics see the development as a victory for the Kremlin, with which the White House is seeking to make a fresh start." (17/09/2009)

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The daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet approves of Obama's decision to sacrifice the missile defence shield for the sake of good relations with Russia: "[US President Barack] Obama wants to thaw the icy relations with Russia. The crux of the matter here is really the problems faced by Washington and Moscow in building a strong coalition against Iran. ... New negotiations will commence on October 1, and Iran is willing to discuss everything except the direction its atomic energy programme is taking. Before this meeting Obama must be sure he has support for implementing further sanctions. Bearing in mind how extensive Iran's nuclear weapons programme has already become, this is perhaps the last chance to make the mullahs an offer they can't refuse. Seen from this perspective the missile defence shield seems like an acceptable sacrifice of a pawn." (18/09/2009)

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US President Barack Obama's decision not to install a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is having a negative impact on diplomatic relations between the US and Central Europe, the daily Die Presse writes: "Obama's decision yesterday has left many Poles and Czechs feeling disappointed and offended. They had hoped the missile defence system would promote particularly close ties and ensure the US's protection. But as Obama said yesterday, dispensing with the missile shield has by no means weakened the West's protective guarantees for Poland and the Czech Republic. After being pampered by [George W.] Bush Central Eastern Europeans feel they have been badly neglected by the Obama government so far. But by paying more attention to them and using his diplomatic and psychological skills Obama should be able to win back these loyal friends of America." (18/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Burkhard Bischof

At least 16 people were killed on Thursday in a suicide bombing in Kabul, among them six Italian soldiers. Not only human lives but also the very survival of the West are at stake in Afghanistan, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Talking about Afghanistan is above all talking about the West. Whether it deserves a future or whether history has other plans. Whether it is cynical to recognise and protect its strong interests and whether it's naive or a pretence to associate it with human rights. Whether it should keep within its borders or whether it should venture out onto the open sea. And whether its disoriented public opinion and feeble ruling classes will not within the century prove right the old prophesy of the 'decline of the West'." (18/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Guido Rampoldi

In the eyes of the daily Latvijas Avīze the criticism levelled at re-elected EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso is unjustified: "First came the institutional crisis of the EU, then the global financial and economic crisis cast their shadow over Barroso's first term. Against this backdrop the EU Commission President has been exposed to constant accusations from all sides and particularly from old Europe. … The former Portuguese prime minister has indeed experimented with many ideologies, from the Maoist ideas widely disseminated during his student days to the liberal market economy. But the same is true of many leading figures in Western Europe. And as long as Europe remains a project of these circles and garners little enthusiasm among the masses, the EU will be subject to the interests and contradictions of the major states and the economy. The accusations should therefore be directed at Paris and Berlin, who tailor their European policies to suit their own interests." (18/09/2009)

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Support for the Nato mission in Afghanistan is crumbling in Western countries. Commenting in the daily Trouw Rob de Wijk, an expert on international relations, warns of the dangers of withdrawing too soon: "Western societies, but above all politics, lack the patience for long-term commitments with little progress. … In Europe the focus has wrongly been placed on help for the Afghans. This reduces the mission in Afghanistan to a form of development aid for which people don't want to see lives sacrificed if the security situation remains poor and democratisation has come to a dead end. The Americans fear that the Netherlands, Canada and Germany will withdraw from the south. This would effectively mean the battle is lost. If the extremists score a mega-victory they can turn Afghanistan into a free haven for jihadist Islamic fundamentalists and will be more strongly motivated in their fight against the West." (18/09/2009)

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In view of the ongoing tensions between Slovakia and Hungary the conservative weekly magazine Heti Válasz criticises Slovakian minority policy while praising that of Serbia: "If we're looking for a solution to the problems of Hungarian minorities in countries bordering on Hungary, we must avert our gaze from Slovakia and look more closely at Serbia. Because on August 31 the Serbian parliament granted the country's minorities, above all the around 300,000 ethnic Hungarians, almost full cultural and personal autonomy. The Hungarians living there didn't get everything they wanted. Nevertheless Serbia has taken some very welcome steps indeed. ... It is perhaps superfluous to mention that Serbia's new minority law stands in sharp contrast to the practices of EU member Slovakia. Who would have thought ten years ago that we would be holding up Serbia of all countries as a positive example to an EU member state?" (18/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Anita Orbán

A native of Rwanda is on trial in the Finnish city of Porvoo on charges of genocide. Critics deplore the high costs that the questioning of witnesses in Africa will incur. Writing in the daily Helsingin Sanomat jurist Minna Kimpimäki defends the high cost of the trial: "Simply by opening the trial Finland became part of the international community that tries to prevent people who have been implicated in the worst international crimes from going unpunished. The trial has its price, but on the other hand it promotes a good cause on which you can't put a price tag. As Carla del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [at The Hague] said, you can't compare the application of international law with a fast food chain; it's neither fast nor cheap. This is also true for the trial in progress in Finland now. Defending human rights has its price." (18/09/2009)

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The weekly magazine The Economist hopes the German federal elections on September 27 will put an end to the grand coalition between the conservative CDU and the socialist SPD: "Yoking together Germany's two Volksparteien in one government tends to stifle the coherent, mainstream opposition that is essential to the cut-and-thrust of policymaking in any democracy. Deprived of choice, disgruntled voters tend to drift towards extremism or apathy, thereby weakening the big parties even more. Indeed, there is a growing risk that, with five parties always likely to win seats in the German parliament, it may become all but impossible to have anything other than a grand coalition. What ought to be an emergency arrangement might turn into a permanent one. That would not be good for democracy. Germans are fond of consensus. Both Ms Merkel and her grand coalition reflect this. ... The hope is that it is less her own nature that has stopped her from putting the case for more reform, than her imprisonment with her SPD partners. It is time to set Angela free to see what she can do." (17/09/2009)

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In the Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei writer Mircea Cărtărescu looks back on the fall of the communist dictatorship in 1989 and is not too pleased with the results: "The revolution took us by surprise and we believed in it. When you're surrounded by a million people hugging and crying with joy, you don't ask who called on them to attend this gathering, or why. Some 1,000 of them were shot down [by security forces]. Then [the communist head of state Nicolae] Ceauşescu, whom we had thought immortal, was shot too. All this was shown on television. … And although everything was so obvious, the effect so simple and the stage so cheap … we believed with open eyes in this dream. The revolution was a telenovela, our sweet illusion. … In 1990 we arrived in a free world and a democracy. But we didn't know what freedom and democracy were. After 50 years of fascist and communist dictatorship we weren't even a nation or even a society any more. We were a herd. We were lied to then, and we are lied to now. We were poor then, and now we're even poorer." (18/09/2009)

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Ritsa Matsoura writes in the daily Kathimerini on the current plight of the French Socialist Party (PS): "The legacy of master French politician [former president] François Mitterrand is badly suffering because of internal party conflicts. The repeated defeats suffered by the party and the arrogant attitude of its chair [Martine Aubry] have allowed French President Nicolas Sarkozy to smash the party to bits. ... Many important personalities of the extra-parliamentary Left and Centre liken the Socialist Party to a withered tree, observing that it can only be preserved in formaldehyde. [Philosopher] Bernard-Henri Lévy goes a step further, saying the party is already stone-dead. ... Clearly the French Socialists have lost control of the ball. The fact that they have decided to carry out preliminary elections within the party along Italian and American lines does nothing to alter the party's broken image. Many feel the situation of the French Socialists is very reminiscent of the last days of communism." (17/09/2009)

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The business daily Les Echos writes on the opening of the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt on Thursday: "Tired of betting on games between Arsenal and Chelsea, bookies should take a closer look at the match between Renault and PSA [Peugeot-Citroën] over clean cars. Which of the two will come out the winner? Although the fight is far from over one thing's for sure: the two French carmakers have chosen radically different paths to making their product ranges 'greener' in the years to come. The more audacious of the two is without doubt Renault, which has put massive amounts of energy into the electric car for the past two years. ... After having shifted much of its 'classic' car production to low-cost countries, the carmaker is now cashing in on this new image. ... The approach of the Peugeot-Citroën clan is far more prudent. Like the majority of large manufacturers it prefers to keep all its options open. ... [In the words of PSA head Philippe Varin:] 'One thing is sure, we're not going to put all our eggs in one electric basket'." (18/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Denis Fainsilber

After several employees at telephone company France Télécom took their own lives in the last few months the daily La Vanguardia favours intervention by the French government aimed at making the process of privatising the company more humane: "The case of France Télécom certainly gives pause for reflection. No one denies that we are living in a competitive society, nor that the effort or ability to adapt to new challenges is vital for professional and entrepreneurial advance. But nor would anyone in their right mind deny that a revision of the labour policy at France Télécom is necessary. … Working life, which used to provide security nowadays generates insecurity. Therefore it is crucial to find a balance between the demands of a competitive society and public health. Cases like that of France Télécom should not be repeated." (18/09/2009)

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An 18-year-old pupil went on a rampage with an axe and petrol bombs at a school in the southern German town of Ansbach on Thursday, injuring eight fellow pupils and a teacher. The left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau comments on the ensuing political discussion about reforming weapon laws: "After [a pupil in Winnenden ran amok] the necessary discussion about the weapons law culminated in the absurd demand that a game like paintball be forbidden - as if young men being able to unload aggression in a simulation of military fighting didn't actually have a preventive effect. Among other things the Ansbach attack makes one thing very clear: when a frustrated or even mentally ill person sees the only way out in violence against others he will make use of any murder weapon at his disposal. This means the discussion about weapons should be peripheral. Young people must be at the centre of it." (18/09/2009)

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All available articles from » Mark Obert