Greece's huge national debt has the same weakening effect on the euro as do the economic problems in Spain and Portugal. The only solution is more pressure from Brussels, writes the daily Trouw: "The Stability Pact is being trampled on as a result of the crisis all over the EU. But with a deficit of almost 13 percent, Greece is the worst culprit, and this has consequences for the monetary union as a whole. ... Greece plans to freeze salaries for public servants, increase taxes on fuel and improve its tax-collection system. In principle this is the right approach. Greece must solve its own problems. Brussels has said that it's not enough and points out that reforms to the pension system, the health-care system and the labour market are also necessary. Such compulsory regulations for getting the economy of a member state back on track are new. EU Commissioner [Joaquín] Almunia will also be looking over the Greek government's shoulder like a teacher. If this strategy is successful, it will be a good step towards an economic union." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Greece, » Europe

The EU Commission should be stricter with member states, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter admonishes with reference to Greece's budgetary problems: "We need a series of reforms so that the Eurozone countries can avoid such problems in future. The monitoring role of the EU Commission needs to be strengthened. The relaxation of the Stability Pact brought about by the bigger states is unfortunate. Binding rules are needed to encourage the euro countries to accumulate a budgetary surplus in times of plenty. Sweden may not have introduced the euro as a means of payment but it is part of the EU and therefore dependent on effective cooperation." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Swedish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Greece, » Sweden, » Europe

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has announced new measures aimed at countering his country's budgetary crisis and fighting tax evasion. But the measures only expose the weaknesses of the socialist government, the left-liberal daily Eleftherotypia says: "In the end the government couldn't avoid drastic steps and couldn't fulfil the campaign promises of the Panhellenistic Socialist Movement (PASOK). ... By saying that the measures for big earners won't have the desired effect until 2011, the prime minister has revealed the major weakness of the state mechanism in the current fight against tax evasion. It is precisely this permanent weakness - which is also the main cause of the crisis - that is leading to the introduction of indirect taxes like the fuel tax. Is there any glimmer of hope that there are no further taxes to come that affect the majority of citizens and the weak instead of that minority which, as the prime minister himself put it, 'is lining its pocket at the expense of the majority'? This first shock gives us no cause for optimism." (03/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Greek)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Tax Policy, » Greece

In the unlikely case that Greece goes bankrupt, Europe should have an alternate plan ready, insists the economics journal Cinco Días, especially in view of Lehman Brothers' failure: "How can one halt the Greek domino effect? An inability to pay is an unlikely scenario. The Greek government has itself resorted to tougher measures in order to prevent that, making cuts in the public sector and raising taxes on Thursday. And the European Union, which has partially accepted the Greek government's plan, would presumably assist where necessary. But observers said the same thing about Lehman Brothers. After this disaster the world should no longer take anything for granted. It is simply better to have a Plan B with many safety measures in place, in order to prevent the crisis from spreading, in case it is unclear how to handle Greece." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Spanish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Banks, » Greece, » Europe, » U.S.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has signalled that his country is ready to allow lightly enriched uranium to be enriched abroad. Iran could profit greatly from this, writes the daily Der Standard: "He [Ahmadinejad] is making this a test case of the international community's fidelity in making agreements. That is a sign that he is serious - but also, that he is speaking only about a partial solution. For he would not gamble so nonchalantly with all Iranian uranium. Nothing is fixed; what is clear are the motives: the pressure of existent and possible future sanctions is increasing. And the world is watching closely how the Iranian regime  handles its opposition. Tehran certainly could do with a distraction, combined with an enormous political gain: a nuclear deal that effectively undermines the UN Security Council's uranium-enrichment ban." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Europe, » U.S., » Iran
All available articles from » Gudrun Harrer

France has turned down the naturalisation application of a Moroccan man because he forces his French wife to veil her face and body. The Tageszeitung finds the French government's position regarding the burqa ban - that it is doing so in the name of women's rights - to be disingenuous: "Unfortunately, Nicolas Sarkozy's government only invokes women's rights when it suits them. It tolerates without compunction the fact that women earn about 20 percent less than men. Or that the rights to contraception and especially to abortion are seriously challenged when, because of budget cuts, many women's advice centres must close. It is therefore scarcely in the position to present feminist arguments. ... One would almost be inclined to agree to a prohibition if it would help the fight against submission and violence in the family. But behind the progressive rhetoric against the burqa and niqab is a noticeably thinly-veiled Islamophobia." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Migration, » Integration, » Minorities, » France
All available articles from » Rudolf Balmer

Just a few days before the runoff vote in Ukraine's presidential elections, the Ukrainian secret service, the SBU, has arrested five men it accuses of being Russian spies who allegedly wanted to buy state secrets in Odessa. News magazine Wprost suspects that President Viktor Yushchenko, who has already been defeated in the elections, is behind the scandal: "This has all played out like a spy movie. Officers of the FSB [Russian secret service] were hired and travelled all the way from Moscow to Odessa. The SBU was determined not to interrupt the operation at a critical moment and to expose the whole affair. To show Russian agents who wanted to steal Ukrainian secrets on television just a few days before the runoff vote is a serious matter. It's no secret that the SBU is subordinate to Yushchenko. ... Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate that the state is under threat and that in this situation there is no other option ... but to declare the elections invalid." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Poland
All available articles from » Grzegorz Ślubowski

The two coalition partners of the Northern Ireland regional government, the Catholic Sinn Féin and the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), are still negotiating the transferal of authority over the police and the justice system from London to Belfast. The daily The Irish Times urges the parties to finally unite: "The destructive and dirty side of ... politics ... is being played out in Northern Ireland while the people want progress. People on the ground are being short-changed and the peace process they endorsed is under threat. DUP and Sinn Féin politicians have been diverted by disagreements over dates for the transfer of justice and policing powers and changes to the Parades Commission [which regulates Protestant marches in Catholic neighbourhoods], as the economic situation worsens. For the first time, the confidence of the electorate, North and South, in the political dispensation endorsed in the historic Belfast Agreement, is waning. We are on the cusp of a moment of development or betrayal." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom

People today live cut off from time, writes poet and philosopher Attila Végh in the socio-political and literary weekly Nagyítás: "Nowadays people have no sense of time, either big time or small time. Big time tends towards spirituality, the transitoriness of life and the meaning of life. The people of today have turned their backs on the meaning of life; they have extracted themselves from this vortex. We are no longer able to fulfil our destiny because we have become civilised beings, the prisoners of a huge mechanism. But nor do we have a sense of the small time, a sense of the moment. We are incapable of experiencing the moment, which may be ephemeral, but at the same time infinite. It escapes us unnoticed. ... So we take our revenge on the interim period, the everyday period. (We still have access to this). We sense that we are living an averted life untouched by what it is to really exist. We therefore seek refuge in the following trick: we expand ourselves in this averted life. The dictator in the average person has the philosopher in himself shot. ... Nero had Seneca killed. Man is too cowardly to confront what shows him his own inadequacy. Therefore he kills it. … The revenge of the mind is that the spirit of dead time haunts us in our deeds." (03/02/2010)

» more information (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Global
All available articles from » Attila Végh

Estonia is one of the EU states worst affected by the economic crisis, but has nonetheless handled the situation well, the daily Postimees writes: "Unlike the others, Estonia put money aside when the going was good. This cautious approach was politically unpopular but has paid off. Thanks to the stabilisation funding, Estonia's budget deficit was only 2.2 percent last year and remains close to two percent this year. This means that at the beginning of 2011 Estonia will be the first Baltic country to be allowed to introduce the euro, and can even reckon with a budget surplus as early as 2013. This is a tremendous feat for a country whose most important markets, Finland and Sweden, are deep in the red." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Estonian)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Tax Policy, » Estonia
All available articles from » Jarmo Mäkelä

The recall of millions of cars has sent Toyota's monthly sales in the US plummeting to their lowest figure in more than a decade. The continuing series of failures has damaged Toyota's image as a dependable auto company, writes the daily Les Echos: "The Toyota affair is only beginning. It will last for a while. ... The US, which has spent billions of dollars to save its own dying giants General Motors and Chrysler, will be pleased to see the Japanese know-it-all fail. ... Up till now, Toyota's performance has truly been flawless. But now, because of too many cost cuts, the giant is skidding out of control. At first it tried to take only one supplier for each unimportant part of as many models as possible. When the part was faulty, millions of cars had to be recalled. All other car companies have been affected already by such incidents. ... Toyota has dropped to the level of its competitors." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » U.S., » Japan
All available articles from » David Barroux

A Romanian author has called on the country's Orthodox Church to canonise the national poet Mihai Eminescu. He is seen as the most important 19th-century Romanian poet. As an icon, he would not only be celebrated but would perhaps even be read again, says the daily Gândul: "Since thousands of literary critics and teachers of the Romanian language have referred to Eminescu as the 'evening star of Romanian poetry', a 'national and universal poet', an 'incomparable poet', a 'unique genius', ... it would not be so odd to canonise him. ... Of course, Eminescu's image in Romania is in any case unrealistic. But if we canonise him, we would at least know for sure that someone in the country would read him. On a specific day, the priests would open the books and thousands of believers could hear verses from the 'Evening Star', the most celebrated and least read poem. Right now no one reads him anyway; they're all busy praising him. Or making fun of him, as do some young intellectuals who are sick and tired of hearing what a genius the genius of the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic region was." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Romanian)
More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Religion, » History, » Remembrance culture, » Romania
All available articles from » Raluca Ion

The Dutch government wants to limit the sale of soft drugs in the so-called coffee shops. Although cannabis might be bad, a complete prohibition would be the wrong approach, writes the Christian Democrat Gerd Leers in the daily De Volkskrant: "Naturally underground trade with a officially prohibited but hip substance continues. We know that since the time of Al Capone and the Prohibition in the 1930s in the US. ... Hence there is only one solution to lowering consumption: regulation. But then also the regulation of planting and trade. ... It would take a long time to convince Europe of this. It would not be impossible, as one sees from the examples of the policies of tolerance in Flanders and the Czech Republic. We are not the only ones facing this problem. In addition, it would not be the first time that the Netherlands would be a pioneer in addressing problems about which everyone would rather remain silent but about which the majority, in the end, is convinced that good regulation would create less damage than either tolerance in secret or nonsensical battles." (04/02/2010)

» more information (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Trade, » Consumers, » Netherlands, » Europe
All available articles from » Gerd Leers

Alcoholism is the most frequent cause of death for adult Finns, and almost every tenth child grows up in a household where excessive drinking is a problem. The treatment of alcoholism costs society up to seven billion euros annually. But it would be even more expensive to cut assistance programs, according to the daily Keskisuomalainen: "Although preventive treatment of addictions is very cheap, there is still a strong temptation to cut this service. But this would be saving on the wrong end of things. The hidden alcoholism in daily life shows itself, among other places, in Internet discussions, where children ask what they can do to stop their parents from drinking. In such cases, the grownups in the children's circle - their relatives and teachers - should exhibit responsibility and offer the children assistance. ... The sad truth is that it requires a strong will on the part of problem drinkers to overcome their alcoholism. But that does not mean that they have to solve their problem on their own. On the contrary: the support of society is crucial." (04/02/2010)

» full article (external link, Finnish)
More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Finland