The opening of Berlin's new international airport planned for June 3 was postponed indefinitely for fire safety reasons on Tuesday. The liberal Financial Times Deutschland pokes fun at the provincial farce: "The rest of the republic must have the impression that not much works in the capital. The roof of the main station is too short, the suburban trains ground to a halt in the middle of their journey. … But perhaps this is part of the city's charm: Berlin, you're so wonderful. [Berlin Mayor] Klaus Wowereit and [Brandenburg's premier] Matthias Platzeck were also surprised when they heard of this latest airport debacle. The question is why the heads of government of Berlin and Brandenburg were at all surprised. After all, they're on the supervisory board. … At least Platzeck's reaction was appropriate - he was livid (hopefully at himself). Meanwhile Wowereit claims to have done everything possible to remedy the situation and sees no reason to get in a panic. A cool guy, this Wowereit." (09/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Germany

An 80-year-old woman was arrested in Bulgaria on Monday for growing huge amounts of cannabis in her cellar. She's not the only one, writes the daily 24 Chasa, arguing that too little is done to prosecute the dealers behind the cannabis grannies: "In fact this is nothing new here in Bulgaria. And it's no secret that many elderly people are hired by pushers to grow cannabis. If they're caught they're supposed to say they grow the marijuana as a medication for personal use. And that makes sense: most of their pensions wouldn't cover the cost of aspirins. But this act is becoming hard to swallow when dozens of grannies are getting slapped with suspended sentences while the traffickers get off scot free." (07/05/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Crime, » Justice, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Anna Zarkova

Bulgaria has put off implementing the EU regulations on waste disposal for years, leading the EU Commission to file an action on Thursday that could lead to high fines. But it's the citizens and not the politicians who stand to pay, writes the daily Trud, because they were dumb enough to trust those in power with leading the country: "This could all have a positive educational effect in the future if it moves these numbskulls to think a bit more at the ballot booths and vote for politicians who keep rubbish under control, instead of rubbish that controls people. ... However it's hard to foster a sense of democracy and civil society in a land of villagers who don't brush their teeth regularly and throw their rubbish from the balcony. Why hasn't the market economy long since eradicated communism in China? One reason is no doubt that 500 million Chinese have never brushed their teeth at all, as a study recently revealed. But unlike the Chinese, we few Bulgarians at least have the freedom to vote." (28/04/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Society, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Vesselin Jelev