The criticism voiced in the EU Commission's progress report strengthens reform-oriented forces in Romania and Bulgaria, writes the left-liberal daily Der Standard: "The verification mechanism that Brussels adopted when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU has proved meaningful and effective. This time the Commission has not blocked any EU funds as a sanction. And that would certainly not be helpful in the midst of the economic crisis in which many Rumanians are suffering desperately - especially as Bucharest is still not in a position to absorb all of the money being put at its disposal by the EU. Far better would be to question the country's accession to the Schengen Area as a way of counteracting the lack of political will in Bucharest. Reform-minded people in both new EU states are already delighted at the criticism coming from Brussels, because in the past such criticism has introduced small revolutions in the system of clientelism." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Romania, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Adelheid Wölfl

The Romanian president Traian Băsescu finds EU Commission's progress report "hard but fair", however he criticises it as "imbalanced". The Bucharest government therefore plans to write its own report in the hope that the EU Commission will then revise its progress report. A dangerous idea, the blog Voxpublica warns: "Just imagine if the EU states were to take the counter-report seriously, rather than the Commission's. That would set a dangerous precedent that discredits the EU Commission. Traian Băsescu has tried to make it clear that the counter-report is bound up with Romania's wish to join the Schengen area [next year]. We'll force our way in with a counterattack, you see! That's a bad idea because it means we're accusing the Commission and the Union of having hidden intentions. … Hopefully Traian Băsescu will realise that if he puts his idea into practice Romania could earn the reputation of being a country that tries to discredit the Union's work." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Europe, » Romania
All available articles from » Cristian Teodorescu

The demands expressed in the EU progress report on Bulgaria are entirely justified, writes the Bulgarian daily Standart, even if the country will not be able to fulfil Brussels' wishes: "It is demanding more competent jurisdiction concerning corruption in the upper echelons of power. That means courts should hand down stricter punishments for corrupt politicians, rather than just washing their hands and polishing their image. It is calling for a body that will discover and prevent conflicts of interest. ... It is calling for an end to corruption in public tenders and sparing use of EU funds. They are not asking for anything unusual other than a state based on logic and the public interest. ... What is written between the lines is: those who are immune to criticism are running roughshod over the reasons behind Bulgaria's EU accession. We however do not have the courage to name them, let alone put them on trial. And to top it all off, we're lazy. We make a big thing of our will for reform but the results are exceptionally slow in coming. Because we don't want to change. We just pretend we do." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Martin Karbovski

The EU has reprimanded Bulgaria and Romania for serious shortcomings in the fight against corruption. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung regrets that it is too late to impose legal sanctions on the countries: "The deadline expired at the end of last year without the two countries having come close to meeting the judicial standards customary in the rest of the continent. The EU Commission, after painstakingly recording all of the lapses year for year, now announces it will impose no further sanctions. This constitutes a scandal no smaller than the EU states' irresponsible handling of the euro stability pact, although in contrast to the currency crisis it may seem to be of less consequence. The EU demonstrates a patience with respect to Bulgaria and Romania as if we were dealing with agricultural reform somewhere in Africa. The fact is, however, that the citizens in the other 25 member states must go on sharing a legal apparatus with two countries with demonstrably corrupt and inefficient states." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Romania, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Nikolas Busse

The participants in the international Afghanistan conference in Kabul have agreed that the country will assume responsibility for its own security by the end of 2014. The decision puts Kabul under fatal time pressure, writes the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore: "The problem is not the money that the West makes available but that Afghanistan moves slowly and not the way we want it to. The international community is in a hurry but changes there take time: a costly product that is in short supply nowadays in the West. Spending eight hours in Kabul is an eternity for the delegations, harried by their desire to leave quickly, yet paradoxically the nine years since the Taliban was forced from power ... have passed in a flash. How much more time do we want to invest? The answer is simple. As little as possible. But 2014 is an apocalyptic deadline for people who have no time: so near and yet so far." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Alberto Negri

Hungary and Slovakia want to find their way back to reasonable neighbourly relations, the two new heads of government Viktor Orbán und Iveta Radičová agreed on Tuesday while attending a summit meeting of the four Visegrád states in Budapest. Controversial subjects are to be resolved by a mixed committee. The Slovak business paper Hospodárske noviny accuses Radičová of having yielded to pressure: "The agreement between Orbán and Radičová looks good - for the Hungarian side, not the Slovakian. … Orbán pushed through the unfriendly law on dual citizenship a month ago and doesn't want to change it at all. Hungary is the 'aggressor' here. Why should we remain silent about this? Because the Slovakian head of government is working on a conflict-free image and simply avoiding disputes. … That's a very risky policy. … Radičová should have brought up the problems that Orbán is causing instead of keeping quiet about them." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Hungary, » Slovakia
All available articles from » Dag Daniš

During a visit to Serbia Croatian President Ivo Josipović and his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadić have pledged that the difficult relations between their two countries will be relegated to the past. The daily Delo writes that the two presidents' words must be followed by deeds: "Success will depend above all on the country Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main challenge for Croatian and Serbian policies and the key to stability in the region. Croatia is gradually getting its citizens in Bosnia used to the idea of cutting the cord between them and recognising that they are a constituent people in a country whose capital is Sarajevo and not Zagreb. Serbia however is obviously not yet ready to make a fundamental change in its relationship with the Republika Srpska [the Serbian constituent republic in Bosnia]. Therefore although the assurance that the two countries are finding their way back to resolving their problems and establishing good relations creates an atmosphere of reconciliation, the words have only symbolic value and mean nothing concrete." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Serbia, » Croatia, » Bosnia and Herzegovina
All available articles from » Rok Kajzer

On Tuesday 36 years ago the Turkish army marched into the north of Cyprus. The conservative daily Simerini writes that the international community's current image of Turkey is too positive: "The country that caused this bloodbath is praised for its good intentions, has become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, chairs the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and is preparing to become a member of the European Union. … The international indifference, international interests, our lack of a strategy as well as our fatalism and our fear have allowed a country that perpetrated a massacre to become a coveted ally and friend. … The confusing dialogue which has been going on for two years, the latest concessions, the plans of foreign decision-makers to find a 'solution' to the Cyprus problem as quickly as possible, and Greece's inability to fulfil its obligations regarding Greek Cypriots have created enormous dangers for our country." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Remembrance culture, » Cyprus, » Global, » Turkey

Europe has so many laws that they threaten to choke the judiciary to death, writes Yves Mény, former president of the European University Institute in Florence, in the daily Ouest France: "Our societies have an insatiable hunger for laws and regulations. Hardly any aspect of our lives, not even the most intimate or the most futile, is spared from the burden of European, national or even regional legislation. ... Too many laws kill the law! Because the paradox is that once the law has been passed it is often forgotten about altogether, as if adopting the text were more important than applying it. ... In other cases the law is a sort of pneumatic hammer for crushing flies. The legislator doesn't care about their cost because it is shouldered by the people in whose interest they are passed. ... We must accept that not everything can be subject to the law, and let judges apply existing law to cases ... as they see fit." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » France, » Europe
All available articles from » Yves Mény

The UK's public sector expenditure has reached an all-time high, as figures published on Monday reveal. The British pound went into freefall after the figures were published. In reality the government's debts are even larger than announced, the conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung contends: "If the state had a company accounts department it would be looking at debts of between 2,700 billion and 4,000 billion pounds, and that's not counting the guarantees of 1,000 billion pounds to 1,500 billion pounds for the banks rescued during the financial crisis. The effective debt amounts to a horrendous 186 percent to 277 percent of GDP, several times the net debt published. In this context it's understandable that new Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced a wage freeze and a re-examination of the generous pensions of public sector employees. The public sector, which became over-inflated under the New Labour government, can no longer be financed." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Peter Rasonyi

The EU Commission wants to close unprofitable black coal mines in Gemany by October 2014, four years ahead of the German government's schedule. The daily Financial Times Deutschland welcomes the proposal: "Even when it was resolved, the decision to end coal mining by 2018 - there have long been no more subsidies for brown coal - testified to an unnecessary delay. The only explanation was the desire to ease the social and financial consequences for coal miners, their families and regions. This target still holds today, but as early as 2007 it was clear that using tax money to prolong these jobs for four more years wouldn't make the slightest difference to their survival chances. In a year when the state faces a record deficit and balancing the budget only seems possible with the utmost effort, Germany's liberal-conservative coalition must now reexamine all existing subsidies." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » Economic Policy, » Labour, » Germany, » Europe

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is likely to face changes at the top management level after the sales of its Smartphones have lagged far behind expectations. The business paper Cinco Días believes the company now needs managers from abroad: "Nokia may radically change its top management. … The supervisory board has met with at least two managers from the US. The appointment of a non-Finnish CEO would be the first in the company's 145-year history. It will be difficult to change the Nokia culture from one day to the next but the fresh perspectives of a foreign innovator could restore the trust of its investors." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Finland
All available articles from » Una Galani

Latvians living abroad had considerably more children in the first months of the year than during the same period last year. An alarm signal, the national-conservative daily Neatkarīgā rīta avīze warns: "This shows once again that young people in particular frequently leave Latvia with their families. And the children are born abroad not because the clinics are better there but because people see their adopted countries as the focal point of their lives. That these children receive Latvian citizenship is more a symbol and a safety net for the worst case scenario, because increasingly the parents immediately apply for the passports of the country where the children are born for their offspring. … The sad demographic situation in Latvia is aggravated by the fact that its society is aging and this means that the inhabitants who are able to work have to pay higher social contributions, which in turn motivates them to seek better living conditions elsewhere - a vicious circle." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Demographics, » Latvia, » Europe
All available articles from » Baiba Lulle

The Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat recently published a report on Estonian children whose parents live and work abroad. Despite its critical tone the report conveys a fairly positive image of the situation of thousands of "labour orphans", criticises the news portal Delfi: "According to the paper Estonia has a tradition of extended parenthood, meaning that children are raised by their grandparents or aunts and uncles more often than in other countries. But this tradition and the use we make of it are to be questioned, not to mention that a grandfather who comes to visit or an aunt living across the street cannot replace a child's parents even if it is possible to communicate with them over the Internet. ... The fact that thousands of children are neglected in this way is a time bomb for our society the consequences of which we will only be aware of in several years' time." (21/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Demographics, » Estonia, » Finland

Finland's state television broadcaster YLE has recently aired several programmes on Karelia, part of which has belonged to Russia since World War II. The daily Karjalainen examines Finnish yearnings tied up with the region: "It isn't possible to deny one's feelings, and for that reason the dream of getting Karelia back is only human. Nevertheless there's no need to talk about what attitude to adopt regarding the people now living there. It's also too early to think about how old buildings and domains could be restored to their original owners. The return of Karelia cannot be achieved through negotiations between our two countries - even if such talks were to take place. The lost territories could only be given back to Finland as the result of a long international chain of events that made the return extremely profitable for Russia. But it's difficult to imagine what such a chain of events could be." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Public Culture, » Minorities, » History, » Remembrance culture, » Finland, » Russia