In Belgium the judiciary and tax authorities are on the point of reaching a compromise settlement with diamond traders who have avoided paying millions of euros in taxes for years on end. It's estimated that the deal will bring the treasury roughly 160 million euros. Such deals are dangerous, the liberal business paper De Tijd warns: "The social consequences of this historic fraud deal are not trivial. Those responsible, who are behind one of the biggest cases of tax fraud in Belgian history, will get off without prison sentences. Their reputations will remain intact and they will be able to go on doing business. A pretty good deal for these tax dodgers, who most likely still have hundreds of millions of euros in their accounts! But we must not let ourselves be blinded by money. Because this is a social decision, one that faces the Belgian state with a huge dilemma. Will we allow these tax criminals to buy their way out of trouble? ... Will this not mean slipping into a two-class legal system in which only small-time criminals get convicted and can no longer find a job?" (07/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Lars Bové
Who's saying what » Europe fights tax evasion

The collapse of a textile building in Bangladesh in which 600 garment workers died has given new impetus to the debate on fair trade. But boycotting cheap textiles made in Bangladesh is not the right approach, the daily Tages-Anzeiger writes: "Because although it is based on dumping prices, the textile industry has triggered a social revolution and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of women: today roughly 80 percent of its employees are female. ... Their salaries made these women more independent from the patriarchal family structures. Families stopped marrying off their 13-year-old daughters because they could profit from their incomes. The young women then became more self-assured, and started demanding an education. ... That should give companies like Walt Disney, which will stop purchasing merchandising articles from Bangladesh, pause for thought. Shirking responsibility is not a solution." (06/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Anja Burri

The suicide of the famous Lithuanian actor Vytautas Šapranauskas on April 18 has shocked Lithuanian society and triggered a new debate about the extremely high suicide rate in the country. On the web portal Delfi, psychiatrist Dainius Pūras deplores the lack of preventive measures: "For more than 20 years over a thousand people have committed suicide each year in Lithuania, a figure that the world finds astounding. … But even such a tragic statistic hasn't prompted us to get our act together and adopt the kind of measures that are known in the civilised world as suicide prevention and prevention of other forms of self-destruction. And the rest of the world finds this all the more surprising. … The researchers of transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe have proven that the most important risk factor in countries like Lithuania was and still is delayed psychosocial stress [after many years of dependency] as well as the lacking ability to cope with this stress." (03/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Dainius Pūras

Croatia's third mosque was inaugurated in Rijeka on Sunday. For both Muslims and Christians this is proof of the successful integration of Islam into day-to-day life in the country. The left-liberal daily Novi List calls on the rest of Europe to follow suit: "The Islamic Centre in Rijeka has become reality, and its inauguration is a historic event - not just for Croatia, the region, the people who live here and the Muslims, but for Europe and the entire world. Rijeka has put itself firmly on the map. The message being sent from there should be heard in the most distant regions, but above all in the big cities that decide our fates. The voice of reason, understanding, friendship, brotherhood and peace has not spoken with such a strong voice for a long time, and this not just from a religious point of view. ... This is a big step for civilisation, one few countries have taken in Europe. Because apart from Croatia, only Austria, Belgium and Spain have given special official recognition to Islam." (05/05/2013)

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All available articles from » Branko Mijić

Spain needs a pact among the major social players to create jobs and prevent populist movements from gaining more ground, the left-liberal daily El Periódico de Catalunya concludes, commenting on the May Day protests staged by the trade unions: "The main message sent by the trade union leaders yesterday is that a major social pact is needed to create employment. But a pact between whom? First and foremost between the trade unions and the employers, as the directly affected parties. But to be truly efficient it will need the support of the politicians. ... The crisis and the profound damage it has inflicted on social cohesion and on the reputations of the politicians together provide an ideal breeding ground for the worst kind of populism. Those who are far-sighted enough and wield sufficient social clout should use these advantages to prevent a disaster." (02/05/2013)

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Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will pass on the sceptre to her son Willem-Alexander today, Tuesday. This royal succession will have a negative impact on the Netherlands' relations with Europe, the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Just as it happened in the political parties long ago, a convinced European monarch is now yielding to a global thinker. ... Willem-Alexander married an Argentinian who made a career for herself as a banker in New York. Both are actively involved in the United Nations. The new queen has fewer qualms than Beatrix about selling herself as the highest sales representative of a nation that is still punching above its weight in the import-export world. ... For Beatrix Europe is the goal, for her son it's a vehicle. That is more than a shift of accent at a time when Britain's gruff criticism of Europe is also gaining ground in the Netherlands." (30/04/2013)

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All available articles from » Andreas Ross

A major gas explosion in the centre of Prague caused dozens of injuries and extensive damage on Monday. The liberal daily Mladá fronta Dnes praises the rescue teams for their exemplary work: "If you compare yesterday's events with similar scenes we sometimes observe to the east, for example in Russia, the difference is striking. Even in the West the rescue services can be slow and clumsy, at least in reacting to larger accidents. It's true, nobody's perfect here at home either, and much is only gradually improving. We dealt far better with the floods in 2002 than in 1997. But another reason to praise yesterday's rescue work is that we Czechs generally have a tendency to criticise everything." (30/04/2013)

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All available articles from » Michal Musil

The future Dutch royal couple wants to be as normal as possible, but that's just what it should not be, columnist Floor Rusman writes in the liberal daily nrc.next, a day before the royal inauguration ceremony: "Our new king likes to come across as a man of the people. ... And Máxima also presents herself as 'one of us'. She goes to pick up her kids from school wearing tracksuit bottoms, and dresses the youngest two in Amalia's hand-me-downs. ... We want to look up to our royals, but at the same time we want them to receive a modest income, to reuse their children's clothing and to take part in all kinds of crazy games on holidays. In other words we're supposed to venerate our royals and identify with them at the same time. But why? Once we've decided in favour of such an antiquated institution as the monarchy, we don't have to measure them according to modern values like equality. The king and queen don't have to be monarchs in ermine coats, but they should distinguish themselves from the masses and emanate a sense of dignity." (29/04/2013)

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At the start of this week the Tallinn District Court approved a decision by the Estonian government that prohibits schools in Tallinn and Narva from offering classes only in Russian. The language of the Russian minority is still a controversial issue in the country 20 years after the end of Soviet rule. Matthew Hyde, former British deputy ambassador to Estonia, recommends in the conservative daily Postimees that Russian be seen as a chance and not a threat: "It isn't difficult to politicise the topic of the Russian language and to stress historical antagonisms and differences. But one thing became clear to me in Estonia: the Russian language thrives there, independently of Russia or the circumstances that prevail at home. It belongs to Estonia's present and future, not just to its past. ... Estonia's multilinguality is its strength; the key is to make successful use of it." (25/04/2013)

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All available articles from » Matthew Hyde

An austerity package for the health sector will be far less drastic than originally planned, according to an agreement reached on Wednesday between the government and the trade unions. The Christian-social daily Trouw says some of the health services are superfluous and should have been scrapped after all: "Some important points of the austerity package have been toned down. That was necessary, but the back-pedalling has been too one-sided in favour of in-home care. … In this respect the agreement is imbalanced and was unduly influenced by the professional group that made the biggest fuss through the trade unions. No one who is on death's doorstep has to clean their own windows. A certain amount of support is warranted, and people can rely on this. But the state shouldn't be generally responsible for this kind of help unless there's no other recourse. Despite its many positive aspects, this care agreement lacks the perspective of citizens who assume responsibility for their own situation." (26/04/2013)

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