The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU have interrupted credit talks with the highly-indebted Hungary. That shows how effective the EU can be thanks to its cooperation with the IMF, writes the conservative daily Die Welt: "Because the Fund can do what the European partners could hardly have done among themselves, namely increase and maintain pressure, especially when the negotiations over the billions of euros in aid money are over and it comes time to implement the agreed-upon austerity plan. ... Like the Eurozone members, the EU Commission could hardly have applied pressure so effectively. Because in the European club national sensitivities and political alliances count for at least as much as economic nuts and bolts. ... The IMF staff showed on the weekend that more is being done here than tying up austerity packages and compiling check lists. The Fund has above all the political independence and the experience to steer austerity measures from abroad." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Greece, » Hungary, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Tobias Kaiser

The International Monetary Fund has suspended a line of credit to Hungary because of its budget deficit. Disciplinary action will do Europe's budget politicians good, writes the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita: "Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Iceland, the Baltic countries - and of course Greece: the list of states counting on international aid in the wake of the crisis has not stopped growing. Certainly, the reasons for the collapse varied somewhat from country to country. But in a nutshell they can be ascribed to a single cause, namely carelessness on the part of governments or financial supervisors. ... Nevertheless there's also a positive side to all this. The IMF's influence has no doubt grown enormously - like its budget, which has been tripled by the G20. Sceptics will say the IMF sticks its nose everywhere it can. But the truth is that a fierce watchdog is just what is needed to keep some states in line." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Jeremi Jędrzejkowski

Hungary has a lot to thank the IMF and EU loans for, writes the left-liberal daily Népszabadság. This makes it all the worse that Prime Minister Victor Orbán's government won't receive any more money as a result of its policies: "We are rubbing our eyes in disbelief. It's almost certain that the forint will devaluate again now. … The Orbán government can't make such a fool of us. … We could have openly announced that we don't need the IMF and EU loans. But then how would we have paid our horrendous debts? We definitely wouldn't have secured any loans on the money markets - we saw that in autumn 2008. If we hadn't had the loan package from the IMF and EU not only our economic but also our political stability would have been badly shaken. And obviously the IMF's money isn't that dirty, otherwise the Orbán government wouldn't have applied for another loan." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Hungary
All available articles from » Zoltán F. Baka

The mayor of the German city-state of Hamburg Ole von Beust announced his resignation on Sunday, meaning the loss of another leading figure at state level for the ruling CDU party. The conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung sees parallels with the resignation of former German president Horst Köhler: "Beust's resignation comes as no big surprise. For months insiders have been saying that the popular baron was weary of office. But von Beust always fiercely denied such rumours. Only this spring he belligerently declared that the city must return to fiscal discipline after a prolonged phase of carefree spending, and that he would rise to the challenge. Ole von Breust spoke back then with almost the same resolve as Finance Minister Schäuble or the liberal budgetary politicians. Now he's giving up his office with miles to go before he reaches the target and in a manner that vaguely resembles how German President Köhler made his exit - not a very convincing departure." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Germany
All available articles from » Ulrich Schmid

Kazakhstan's authoritarian head of state Nursultan Nazarbayev has pulled off a prestige coup. The 56 heads of state and government of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSZE), currently chaired by Kazakhstan, will take place in the Kazakh capital Astana in October. But Nazarbayev doesn't deserve this success, writes the daily Die Presse: "Of course such a major event should be able to take place in Central Asia. But what has Kazakh diplomacy done to resolve the many conflicts with which the OSCE is involved? Have any steps been taken to introduce further democracy and the rule of law in Nazarbayev's autocracy since it took over the OSCE chairmanship? Supporters of the Nazarbayev summit like Austria's foreign minister Michael Spindelegger give no answer to such questions. All he has done is drivel something about the significance of Central Asia and a 'valuable impulse for future debate'. But the real danger is that if the OSCE is so free and easy about letting autocracies organise its summit meetings it will have no future at all." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Austria, » Asia
All available articles from » Burkhard Bischof

US photo artist Richard Renaldi captures moments of physical contact between strangers with his camera. His pictures make an important statement about the quest for and fear of contact in the age of social networks, in which contacts are established online, writes poet Valerio Magrelli in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Richard Renaldi has understood the importance of human contact within the anthropological interaction system. … At long last we humans are forced to give up the biological safety distance that every living being maintains with regard to others. We are forced to cross the boundaries of proxemics [the science of distances in verbal and nonverbal communication], … physical boundaries, but also boundaries between classes, races and religions that keep us from making even the simplest physical contact. It reminds you of the 'shake hands with each other' at church, because this brief shaking of hands powerfully breaks the taboo that keeps a distance between one person and the next in our social life." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Photography, » Public Culture, » Online media, » Global
All available articles from » Valerio Magrelli

Blogging is dying a silent death, the British magazine The Economist recently wrote, pointing out that new media like Twitter and Facebook will replace it. In the daily De Standaard Canadian writer and blogger Cory Doctorow disagrees: "When all we had was the stage, every performance was a play. When we got films, a great lot of these stories moved to the screen, where they'd always belonged ... . When TV came along, those stories that were better suited to the small screen were peeled away from the cinema and relocated to the telly. When YouTube came along, it liberated all those stories that wanted to be 3-8 minutes long ... . Any new development in the media landscape is a good thing. The stories we tell on the stage today are there not because they must be, but because they're better suited to the stage than they are to any other platform we know about. ... For me, the great attraction of all this is that preparing material for public consumption forces me to clarify it in my own mind. ... Thus the more media I have at my disposal, the more ways there are for me to work out my own ideas." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Global
All available articles from » Cory Doctorow

The US Senate passed a financial regulatory reform bill on Thursday meant to increase regulation and transparency in the country's financial sector. The daily Delo writes that the measures only make sense if the international community takes similar steps: "The new law could prove completely ineffective in the coming years, because until now those responsible for regulation haven't been overly keen to subject their friends on Wall Street to thorough inspections. ... But even the best measures won't go very far if they're not mirrored internationally. Companies that run into difficulties in one country simply transfer their business activities elsewhere. For that reason the step taken by the US must be a part of an international effort to control the financial escapades of companies who assume no responsibility for their actions." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Consumers, » Financial Markets, » Banks, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Boris Cibej

People who cross Europe by train encounter problems at nearly every border crossing. Europe's train companies are too parochial in their approach, writes the daily Göteborgs-Posten: "True, isolated high-speed lines have been established here and there in Europe. But apart from that hardly anything has changed in cross-border travel ... since the 1970s. Rail services are for the most part caught up in old national mentalities. Certainly, there are essential differences between train and air travel. Train travel depends on rail networks and is for that reason limited in scope. By contrast the airspace is practically unlimited. Nevertheless the lack of innovative thinking in the train sector is astonishing, even if it can be partially explained by the national companies' complete lack of interest in what lies beyond their borders. In times of debate about climate change international rail services have enormous potential. But for it to be realised the old monopoly colossuses must wake up and offer competitive products. Such times, however, are still a long way off." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Tourism, » Sweden, » Europe
All available articles from » Fredrik Tenfält

The British government is considering guaranteeing fixed electricity prices for energy companies in a bid to encourage them to make the necessary investments in the energy sector. The business paper Expansión criticises the plan, saying it would interfere inadmissibly with the free market: "Ideas like the creation of a public entity that would regulate the buying and selling of electricity seem unfortunate because with the prospect of state aid the electricity companies would cease to compete in terms of efficiency and price. … More appropriate would be to explore the creation of a mechanism that facilitates the signing of long-term contracts between electricity companies and their customers. These electricity auctions would allow electricity prices to be fixed for several years at a time without the intervention of the government, eliminating the uncertainty for both companies and customers. The UK should look into this option as a logical continuation of its liberal model." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » Corporations, » Consumers, » Economic Policy, » United Kingdom

Spain's victory at the FIFA World Cup stands to give the country the self-assurance it needs to overcome its economic problems, writes the daily Times of Malta: "Spain's well-deserved World Cup victory has served as a welcome distraction from the country's economic woes and has boosted its confidence and a sense of unity as a nation. It will certainly help Spain adjust through a difficult period and will serve as an example of how determination and perseverance pay off in the end. After all, Spain lost its first World Cup match but did not lose heart, and it ended up winning the tournament. Hopefully Spain's World Cup victory will encourage the country to stick together as a nation and face the challenges ahead with courage. In the end, the country's efforts and sacrifices will be worth it. There has already been some good news. Last week China bought €1 billion of Spanish bonds in a big vote of confidence in the eurozone and Spain. Let's hope this trend continues." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Consumers, » Sport, » Spain

After the suicide of Romanian pop singer Mădălina Manole economic policy expert Mircea Cosea writes in online newspaper standard.ro's business blog that the Romanian state's culture policy marginalises Romanian art and artists. "The culture market has - if I may say so - a connotation that is part communist, part Medieval. It is communist because art and artists are subject to an egalitarian-collectivist vision in which artists are assessed according to how many years they have been working rather than the individual merits of their work. …It is an untaxed, Medieval type market because in this country we have many barons of the transformation who can afford to maintain their own 'personal artists', whom they then have make their appearances at weddings, baptisms and private parties for a select circle of friends." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Cultural Policy, » Romania
All available articles from » Mircea Coşea

The Luxembourg parliament is to vote on a bill on the introduction of same-sex marriages. The daily Le Quotidien welcomes the plan, but writes that it could go even farther: "In permitting same-sex marriages Luxembourg would not only take a huge step forward in social terms. ... It would belong to the very small circle of states that have shown the courage to recognise that society has not waited for laws to be passed before developing as it saw fit. The government's bill allows simple adoption for homosexual couples, not however full adoption [in which the ties between the child and its family of origin are severed]. Even same-sex partners can feel true love for each other, and just like everyone else they can pass a bit of that love on. That is what a child needs, not an old and dusty pseudo-model of society." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Gender equality, » Luxembourg
All available articles from » Bertrand Slézak

The Bulgarian police launched a major raid against prostitutes on the Black Sea last weekend. Adelina Nikolova fears in the daily Novinar that this will reignite the debate about a prostitution law: "I am certainly in favour of healthy prostitutes who can go about their daily work under comfortable and hygienic conditions in brothels and pay their little contribution to the state at the end of the year, which is then invested in sex education for children, for example. That's all very well. But we shouldn't forget that these women didn't choose this path because it was their childhood dream. … Sexual exploitation is a crime. It would be absurd to legalise the business with carnal desire and levy taxes on sexual services. Everything must be done to catch the pimps. Who knows how many young girls believed their stories and ruined their chances of ever leading a normal life as a result." (18/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Tax Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Adelina Nikolova

The FIFA World Cup has proven in the eyes of the left-liberal daily Libération that European countries are the masters of this ball game: "The final game Netherlands against Spain confirms … the supremacy of European football in global football. Of the 736 players who were selected by the 32 countries that qualified for the World Cup, 545 play with European clubs. How can this dominance be explained? … The first reason is of a financial nature. Football has become one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. … Europe not only looks back on a long tradition but also has a huge market of fans. The second reason has to do with history. Countries that have a strong football tradition find it easier to develop structures, organisations and procedures for training and selection than countries that are poorly developed and where there is a lack of institutions for this top sport." (19/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Sport, » France
All available articles from » Zaki Laïdi