The Swiss National Council voted 127 to 67 against a new law that would pave the way for the transfer of banking data to the US authorities and payments running into the billions from untaxed money. The liberal daily Le Temps sees the decision as a covert message to Brussels: "The National Council says No to a dictate from abroad, to the demands of a superpower that is fully aware of its influence. It wants to make it clear to its neighbours that even a state as small as Switzerland can put up resistance. Basically this is an indirect message to Brussels, which wants to remove the Swiss veto regarding the exchange of tax data. A show of courage that is supposed to come across as virtuous but fails to resolve the fundamental problem.The US judiciary is sovereign and won't change the goals that its own rule of law prescribe. The confrontation is just beginning." (19/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Switzerland, » U.S.
All available articles from » Pierre Veya

The IMF wants to end its stand-by arrangement with Romania, which has been in force since 2011, at the end of June. Even if many of the requirements were not fulfilled, the arrangement will be assessed positively because after the Greek debacle the IMF needs a success story, economist Moise Guran writes in his blog Biziday: "Romania received 20 billion euros [in 2009, among other sources from the IMF], at a time when no one wanted to give us money. Now it's in a position to obtain loans everywhere, also because everyone is willing to lend again. IMF head Christine Lagarde will come and visit us soon - shortly before the most recent agreement expires. We'll congratulate each other and Romania will thank the IMF for throwing it a safety line. But let's be honest with ourselves: Romania lost four years. An IMF arrangement is really a blockade: a time in which the government is nothing more than the executor of decisions that are taken by small-minded accountants." (19/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » National debt, » Eastern Europe, » Romania
All available articles from » Moise Guran

The number of small street markets where people can buy cheap food and clothes is growing in Cyprus. The liberal daily Phileleftheros writes that such markets provide relief from the poverty many Cypriots are now subjected to: "Such markets have increasingly been springing up in recent times. They're organised outdoors and anyone who wants to can set up a stand and sell their goods at a low price. ... That's exactly what most people need. Even those who always wore brand name clothes and shoes now go to these markets. ... Of course the shop owners complain about this development in the retail trade, arguing that the bazaars are taking away their customers. But what are the poor people who can no longer afford to shop at established stores supposed to do?" (17/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Trade, » Society, » Euro crisis, » Cyprus
All available articles from » Christos Charalambous

The Baltic is reported to be the most polluted sea in the world. According to official figures, up to 25 percent of the sea floor is biologically dead. Poland in particular is polluting the Baltic, the daily Kaleva points out, and calls on politicians to rethink their policy: "Because of the gypsum residues in a branch of the Vistula River, each year more than 200 tonnes of phosphorous flow into the river and from there into the sea. That's more that the environmental pollution in all the Finnish cities taken together. And another Finnish report puts that figure at more than 500 tonnes per year. … In any case the other Baltic Sea states certainly have the right to demand greater efforts. One should point out that the EU has given Poland around 67 billion euros in regional and agricultural subsidies between 2007 and 2013. … And beyond the financial perspective the real problems lie in the lack of environmental awareness and a wrong attitude." (18/06/2013)

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

The head of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, will explain on Wednesday whether the Fed will continue on its present course. With their low interest policies of recent years and the purchase of government bonds, the central banks of the EU, the US and Japan have tried to fight the crisis. The liberal business daily Les Echos sees the end of this interventionist policy drawing closer: "The planet's big money lenders have caused the weak markets to totter. Ben Bernanke is gradually announcing the withdrawal of the Fed, and investors are growing afraid. Mario Draghi has let it be known that he will not lower the ECB's deposit rate to below zero, leading people to conclude that he's out of ammunition. Haruhiko Kuroda [governor of the Bank of Japan] remains inactive for a week and the Japanese market goes into shock. ... [But] the time is coming when the central banks will have to put an end to their very aggressive policies. Otherwise they risk providing fertile ground for inflation, inflating new bubbles and sowing the seeds of the next crises." (17/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Guillaume Maujean

European Commission Chief José Manuel Barroso spoke out on Thursday in favour of organising a rescue programme for ailing member states in the long term without the involvement of the IMF. The liberal daily Diário Económico is not impressed by the idea: "Firstly because to be fair we must concede that the IMF is our best friend within the troika. … The last two years have shown that the IMF has reacted increasingly sensibly to the economic impact of the adjustment programme. The same can only now be said of the European Commission, and only because it now finds this convenient and expedient in terms of domestic policy, rather than because it is acting out of conviction. The second reason is that the IMF was only dragged into the whole story of the debtor state crisis because Europe was unable to deal with the problem on its own, either from an institutional or a financial perspective." (14/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Euro, » Euro crisis, » Portugal, » Europe
All available articles from » António Costa

Deutsche Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann criticised the European Central Bank's bond-buying programme before Germany's Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday. The judges are currently trying to determine whether the ECB's programme for unlimited buying of government bonds is unconstitutional. The Bundesbank is acting extremely irresponsibly, the left-liberal daily El País writes: "The position of the Bundesbank, which is openly opposing the European Central Bank (ECB) in the constitutional court's proceedings, has triggered an upheaval that is entirely unnecessary and unfounded. … It is not the ECB but the Bundesbank that is exceeding its powers, since it has broken with the policy of discretion that can be expected of a central bank. Financial authorities shouldn't go around telling the whole world about their positions when they know very well that this causes damage on the markets. Such behaviour is what we call irresponsible." (14/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Banks, » Justice, » Euro crisis, » Germany, » Europe

French air traffic controllers have been on strike since Tuesday, severely restricting air traffic in Europe. The strike is in protest at plans for restructuring the EU airspace, which include the liberalisation of aviation regulatory authorities. The conservative daily De Telegraaf has no understanding for the protest: "The plan means not only an end to 27 small and far too bureaucratic airspaces. It is also a chance to revive the European aviation sector, which has been under considerable pressure for years now. Unnecessary detours within Europe cause planes to fly in zigzags that lengthen routes by 20 to 70 kilometres. If these can be done away with, billions of euros in fuel costs can be saved and flights can be made ten percent more economical. In addition flight capacity can be doubled with an increase in efficiency, and air travel can be made safer. These enormous advantages show that with all their bawling, the air traffic controllers have taken the wrong course." (13/06/2013)

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

The International Energy Agency presented a study on Monday according to which CO2 emissions are dropping across Europe, with the exception of Malta. The country, which covers its energy demands almost exclusively with imported oil, must quickly rethink its energy production stragegy, the liberal-conservative daily The Malta Independent writes: "Malta actually releases more CO2 to generate its electricity than Ethiopia - whose population exceeds 80 million, but which has invested heavily in hydroelectricity. The problem is there to see, Malta must change its power generation methods. We are literally choking ourselves. The government must continue to explore financially sustainable ways to bring us in line, as we are falling very far behind. At the end of the day, it is our own health which will suffer if we don't change course." (11/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Economy, » Malta

In the fight against youth unemployment in Bulgaria, which lies just below 29 percent, Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski wants to revoke the plan to raise the retirement age to 67. But this measure won't help create new jobs, the economist Gerogi Angelov writes in the daily Trud: "The prime minister's attitude is reminiscent of a mathematics exercise from seventh grade: if a swimming pool is filled with two pipes and emptied with one, how long will it take for the pool to be completely full or completely empty? The problem is that such a simplified, mechanical model doesn't correspond to the real world. After he won the elections in France last year, François Hollande also abandoned the pension reform and the planned raising of the retirement age in a bid to lower unemployment. The result: 337,000 people have lost their jobs since then, and the jobless rate has been breaking records each month." (11/06/2013)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Labour, » Labour market, » France, » Eastern Europe, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Georgi Angelov
Who's saying what » Europe wrestles with record unemployment