The liberal daily Financial Times Deutschland criticises EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso's state of the European Union address as distant from citizens' interests and inconsistent: "In his speech Barroso demanded respect for human rights to great applause - but he fell short of mentioning Sarkozy's mass deportations of Romanian EU citizens. ... At the same time he lacks the talent to speak to citizens directly. Barroso's speech was directed at the MEPs - he talked about the citizens, not to them. Instead he reconfirmed the prejudice that what Europe really wants is more power and money. ... He should also have made suggestions on how to save money, and explained how the Union's money can be put to efficient use - be it with agricultural aid running into the billions, structural aid or through the 36 EU agencies dispersed across Europe. The opportunity to do this will come up this autumn when his Commission presents its budget for the coming years. Now that would be a 'State of the Union' address worthy of the name." (08/09/2010)

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EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso's speech before the European parliament was apparently meant to resemble the US-style State of the Union addresses but it turned out to be a flop, writes the business paper Hospodářské noviny: "Barroso tried to secure a full parliament for himself by threatening the MPs with penalties for absence. Only after the parliamentary party bosses put him under severe pressure was this threat dropped. ... Barroso had hoped yesterday's speech would help him in his covert contest with others to become the 'face of Europe'. It's remarkable, however, that neither 'European president' Herman Van Rompuy nor the 'European foreign minister' Catherine Ashton were present in Strasbourg. And Obama's stance on the EU is best illustrated by the fact that if they want to meet up with the US president Barroso and Van Rompuy will have to travel to the Nato summit in Lisbon in November." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Adam Černý

Members of the EU Parliament have criticised Commission President José Manuel Barroso among other things for his silence on the deportations of Roma from France. The daily Delo joins in the critique, but points out that the MEPs also share responsibility for the state of the EU: "With the Treaty of Lisbon the European Parliament has become more involved in the decision-making mechanism. Together with the Council of the European Union it now decides on almost 90 percent of European legislation. For that reason the MEPs can no longer just sit back and voice criticism, regardless of how justified it is. They also bear their share of responsibility for the state of the Union. And for that reason the address on the state of the EU which the Commission President will give in a year's time will depend to a large extent on the role and involvement of the Members of the European Parliament in the decision-making process." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Europe
All available articles from » Bozo Masanovic

More than a million French took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the government's plans to raise the retirement age  to 62. Yet compared to other European countries the French retire early, the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant stresses, noting that the civil servants and employees "are showing little realism. The reform of the generous French pension system is inevitable because the average age is increasing and people are drawing their pensions for longer periods. To reduce the state's massive debts and curb state expenditure the government has no alternative but to save 100 billion in the next three years. It is only fair that France's pension system, which is expensive in a European comparison, should be affected by the cuts. The government in Paris has called on the people to show 'courage' while it tries to restore financial order in the country. By blocking public transport and closing schools the strikers may have shown their willingness to fight, but they didn't show courage." (08/09/2010)

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

The EU finance ministers on Tuesday gave the green light for the setting up of three new EU financial supervisory authorities, the EBA for banks, the EIOPA for insurance companies and the ESMA for stock markets. However the powers of these authorities have not yet been clearly defined, which moves the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore to express doubts about their potential efficiency: "The question is whether this is a single, joint framework of regulations or a confused patchwork cobbled together by the representatives of different organs locked in perpetual conflict with each other. ... The main problem concerns the scope of the powers of these authorities, whose main task it is to formulate binding regulations for the entire continent. The fact is that the EU treaties make no provision for the establishment of independent authorities with autonomous powers like those of the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The European supervisory authorities will continue taking the credit for what others have achieved. The EU Commission and EU Parliament are entitled to ... refuse to recognise their regulations. In that case the European supervisory authorities would have to start all over again." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Riccardo Sabbatini

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has reshuffled his government, appointing new members and increasing the number of ministers and their deputies from 37 to 48. This could however delay the government's plans for getting the country back on track, the left-liberal daily Ta Nea fears: "The composition of a government is no guarantee in advance that it will perform well. This is even less so given that the current constellation is much more complicated than it was before. ... The risk the prime minister is taking concerns the scale of the reshuffle. We must hope that the new people get used to their new roles very quickly. Otherwise the government is in danger of losing the race against time and the troika [composed of the European Central Bank, the EU Commission and the International Monetary Fund] is already lying in wait." (08/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Ioannis Pretenderis

The draft regulations on a green tax reform presented by the Finnish government, which foresee a rise in energy prices, are increasingly coming under fire. The daily Hämeen Sanomat joins in the criticism: "It is now clear that for example raising taxes on natural gas will lead to more coal and peat being burnt. That, in turn, means that the current CO2 and fine particulate matter emissions will continue to rise. Implementing the proposal would also lower the use of district heating. ... In fact as far as energy management and the climate are concerned the draft regulations are heading in the right direction. Nevertheless they would mean that the huge sums invested in installing district heating networks were in vain, as were the hundreds of millions invested in gas power plants." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Economic Policy, » Tax Policy, » Finland

France's second-largest fast food chain Quick offers exclusively Halal meat in eight restaurants, an offer it extended to fourteen other restaurants on September 1. The anthropologist Dounia Bouzar takes the opportunity to discuss France's tradition of laicism: "How to guarantee the freedom of belief of various groups in the same community? How far does the freedom of belief extend without hindering others' freedom not to believe, and vice-versa? Guaranteeing the freedom of belief means allowing citizens to believe, to not believe, and to believe what they want. Laicism is a legal system adopted to allow the French to enjoy a common destiny on the basis of multiple, varied, identities which may also evolve. Laicism was adopted to avoid having a single moral authority, so that no philosophy may dominate any other, be it religious or not." (07/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Minorities, » Weltanschauung, » France
All available articles from » Dounia Bouzar

The biggest economic summit in Central Eastern Europe began today, Wednesday, in the southern Polish town of Krynica Górska. The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita is already predicting a positive outcome for the Forum Ekonomiczne: "In the 20 years since the Krynica summits began the event has gained a firm foothold in the schedules of the economic elites. The number of participants increases with almost each year that passes, despite the fact that prices in this little mountain town are very high and the conditions provided by the sanatoriums and hotels are far from the luxury these businesspeople are accustomed to. Nonetheless they all make their way there because it is the done thing to be in Krynica in September. It is not just the Poles who value the opportunity to meet Polish entrepreneurs there. Not only the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek will be in Krynica as usual, but also EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso." (08/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Paweł Jabłoński

While the coalition in Berlin has extended the running times of German nuclear power plants Slovakia is contending with protests from Nuclear-free Austria against its nuclear programme. The liberal daily Sme sees nuclear energy as indispensable for Slovakia, but urges a cautious approach on the issue: "Nuclear power plants remain the only alternative to fossil energy sources in the medium term. If we want to reduce our dependency on Russia and also our consumption of oil, gas and coal, promoting renewable energies and saving energy simply won't be enough. This can only be achieved with the help of nuclear energy. ... It would therefore be foolish for Slovakia to dispense completely with nuclear energy, as radical environmentalists and our Austrian neighbours demand for reasons that are more ideological than rational. … Post-communist dawdling, corrupt authorities and political pressure are admittedly not the best guarantee for all the security regulations being observed. Clear supervision will undoubtedly be necessary here." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Slovakia, » Austria, » Russia
All available articles from » Peter Morvay

US President Barack Obama has announced a stimulus programme that will cost at least 250 billion dollars aimed at creating new jobs. In the long term his plan could do more harm than good, writes the daily Jyllands-Posten, "because it will leave a huge bill and because the US's national debt has reached proportions that leave no more room for another economic setback. ... Leading economists explain that countries like China, India and Brazil will register high economic growth rates and increasing prosperity in the coming decade while the US economy will grind to a halt. The growth in developing nations will bring permanent changes in the global power structure and weaken the US's geopolitical influence. ... President Obama should follow the example of European governments and focus more on balancing out the budget and debts." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Economic Policy, » U.S.

A new computer system facilitating communication between parents and schools has been in operation since the beginning of the new school year in Estonia. The daily Eesti Päevaleht has its doubts about the new system: "Estonia takes great pride in its electronic solutions to everyday tasks and has rightly promoted them abroad with great success. But in recent times there have been some less admirable developments: first there were the technical hitches when the digital doctor's prescriptions were introduced, and now the problems with the school information system. ... Of course the latter can help to keep parents better informed of what is happening at school. If reports on the progress of a pupil are just a couple of mouse clicks away, parents can hardly claim they weren't aware of how their child was performing at school. But that needn't mean that contact between parents and schools is reduced to an impersonal exchange over the Internet. Estonia's parents are still far from the kind of cooperation between schools and parents which you see in Scandinavia." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Estonia

After the make-up examinations in September a total of 69 percent of Romanian secondary school students have passed their leaving exams this year, compared with 80 percent the year before. Quick money is more important to young Romanians than education, writes the daily Adevărul: "In the past two decades the idea has become lodged in people's (and children's!) minds that you don't need so many books but you do have to make money. ... A growing number of pupils as well as parents have begun to see schools and universities as mere services: so long as they hand out the diplomas, we can take care of ourselves. ... This perception exists not only among children ... but has spread to society as a whole. In people's eyes the winners of the political transformation are the 'cunning ones' who knew how to make money. It will be very difficult for us to free ourselves of this distorted view. And by the same token it will be difficult for people to understand that a university education is the best investment one can make." (08/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Mircea Vasilescu

Heavy rains have led to flooding in the old city of Riga, a problem many locals blame on the beavers living in the city's walls. The business paper Dienas Bizness puts the blame elsewhere: "There can be no doubt that Riga does have a beaver problem. But it would be naive to think that if a beaver builds its dam in a drainage ditch one day the city will be under water that night. If beavers could do that they'd have to be declared public enemy number one in Latvia, and there would be a price on the head of every beaver in the country. ... The problem lies much more with the authorities' failure to act, which has lasted for years now. They believe Riga comprises no more than the city hall, the old city, the harbour and the Freedom Monument. But it also comprises rivers, ponds and canals, and these must also be kept in order. That doesn't require millions of lats in investment, just regular inspections." (08/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Architecture / Cities, » Latvia