The EU is reacting far too hesitantly to France's Roma deportations, writes the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "The Brussels EU Commission ... has a questionable reputation for evading conflicts with member states on a regular basis. This is particularly true when the states in question are big and powerful. Yet the authority has the clout to confidently tackle national governments if it only dared. But it doesn't dare, as the mass deportations of Roma from France show. The behaviour of the Commission is unworthy of its status. It has major misgivings about the conduct of Nicolas Sarkozy's French government. But it is not presenting those objections in an offensive manner. And Commission boss Barroso remains silent." (03/09/2010)

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France's policy regarding the Roma is intolerant and harks back to the past, writes the weekly Le Jeudi: "In the space of a few months and for basely political reasons, the current leaders of our neighbour France have made their country a blemish on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even the Pope has become annoyed by the affair. ... To get the president back in shape - who would receive a severe clouting at the hands of the socialist opposition if the French were to go the polls today - the advisors at the Élysée Palace could come up with nothing better than to harvest intensively the fields of intolerance. And to brandish two menaces that evoke the days when just belonging to a population group was enough to have one sent to a death camp: the stigmatisation of a people - in this case the Roma - and the loss of French citizenship." (02/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Jean Portante

Sweden's Minister for European Union Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson has voiced criticism of France's deportations of members of the Roma community. But the outrage at France is hypocritical given Sweden's harsh deportation practice for Roma, writes the liberal Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. "Ohlsson hasn't minced her words in her criticism of France. That is justified, but not even the French police deport Roma during their first three months in the country. ... It is important that the EU Commission has begun to react, and that commissioners Cecilia Malmström and Viviane Reding should question France about what is going on. The French mass expulsions are deeply disturbing, as is the disgraceful policy towards the Roma in Bulgaria and Romania. But for Sweden's criticism to hold water the first thing we have to do is clean up the back yard at [the seat of government] Rosenbad." (03/09/2010)

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It serves no purpose to deport the Roma, writes the daily Adevărul, arguing that their mentality has to change: "Even the Romanian communists tried to control the Gypsies as they moved from place to place with their clans. They thought they should build houses on the outskirts of towns. Were they ever in for a surprise when they saw that the Gypsies slept in tents and kept their horses in the houses. Now the French are sending them back to homes they don't even have, because they're nomads even if they travel by plane nowadays instead of covered wagons. This is the major challenge facing France and Europe: to change the mentality of an ethnic group that lives in the modern world according to social rules that are hundreds if not thousands of years old. ... Otherwise instead of a decrease in crime all we'll get is an increase in air traffic with Gypsies being sent here, there and everywhere." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Ion M. Ionita

Controversial author Thilo Sarrazin is being forced to resign his post at Germany's federal bank, with the Bundesbank board naming a lack of political moderation as the reason. The liberal daily Financial Times Deutschland writes that although the Bundesbank's decision to part with its besieged board member is absolutely correct, it has been left looking like a puppet in the hands of German politics: "The Bundesbank is a myth. It is supposed to be independent and incorruptible and dedicated solely to the goal of price stability. Yet in these past torturously long weeks its president seemed anything but independent. This was above all down to the politicians who clamoured for Sarrazin to be ousted but at the same time acted as if they had nothing to do with the whole affair. Following the good advice of the German chancellor, the opposition and even the German President, [the president of the Bundesbank] Weber seemed passive and submissive. The decision the board has reached now barely changes this. The once so proud Bundesbank comes across like a puppet on the strings of politicians. ... If Germany's politicians can learn something from the Sarrazin affair it's that the areas of responsibility need to be clearly defined. If they want an independent Bundesbank then they should allow it to follow its own staffing policies." (03/09/2010)

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Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc has sacked six ministers, including those holding the important finances, economy and labour portfolios, in one fell blow as a result of harsh criticism of his government's austerity measures. This should not be allowed to jeopardise the IMF agreement, the daily Gândul warns: "No matter who ends up sitting in the uncomfortable boss's seat at the Ministry of Public Finance, the new minister must ... stick to the agreement negotiated with the IMF, which will secure us a loan of 20 billion euros. ... It would be a fatal mistake on the part of the government if, as a result of the cabinet reshuffle, Romania increasingly distanced itself from the IMF agreement which was sold to the population as a mountain of money from Washington and clearly shows what needs to be done: reform of the civil servants machinery through budget cuts for public sector employees, modernisation of the pension system and a long-term annual budget plan. Romania won't be able to live on borrowed money for much longer. The point will come when no one will believe that we are able to pay off our debts. And we won't know where to turn to get more money." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Victor Rotariu

Polish president Bronisław Komorowski will attempt during his visit to Berlin today, Friday, to revitalise the Weimar Triangle, a loose grouping of Poland, Germany and France. The last informal meeting between the heads of state of these three countries took place four years ago. The meeting highlights the growing importance of Poland within the EU, writes the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "The new head of state dreams of Poland restarting the EU's Franco-German motor, which hasn't been working lately. The triangle was created 19 years ago to aid Poland with its integration into Europe. Today the triangle is just a club where non-binding discussions take place because Germany and France prefer to talk between themselves. But we are becoming increasingly important for Europe, and next year we will hold the six-month rotating EU presidency." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Bartosz Wieliński

In his recently published memoir A Journey Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair blames his successor Gordon Brown for the current woes of the Labour Party. This is unfair, writes the national daily NRC Handelsblad: "What is wrong with these essentially strong leaders who were in power for years but run away from reflection and self-criticism once they step down? ... Now that ideologies and principles have become less important, the institutional significance of political parties is also diminishing. ... A strong political leader compensates for this structural weakness with charisma and discipline. This makes the exercise of power a more personal matter. The downside, however, is that the vacuum is all the greater when the leading figure makes his or her exit. ... This trend is in keeping with the times. The fate of Blair is not unique." (03/09/2010)

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According to an international commission of experts which includes renowned members like Javier Solana, Amartya Sen and Fernando Cardoso, the current international policies against drug trafficking don't work. In the left-liberal daily El País, Mexican author Carlos Fuentes calls for a radical revision of drug policy: "The prohibitionist policies of the United States and Europe's damage limitation policy have neither stemmed supply nor reduced consumption - both have actually increased. First Columbia, then Mexico became the epicentres of a business which depends on consumer demand. So the goal is to reduce demand. How? By making consumption a public health problem instead of a criminal activity and making addicts patients instead of buyers. This would cut demand and lower the prices. ... Prohibition alone has neither reduced production nor consumption. The current policies have been directed against supply more than consumption. In other words, we have come to realise that eliminating the supply doesn't eliminate the demand, and that demand often translates into death by overdose and the spread of infectious diseases." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Carlos Fuentes

The British physicist Stephen Hawking has caused a stir with his new book The Grand Design, in which he argues that the creation of the universe needed no divine designer. High Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes in the conservative daily The Times that it is wrong for modern science to exclude the possibility of God's existence: "There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. ... It is important for us to understand the misinterpretation Professor Hawking has made, because the mutual hostility between religion and science is one of the curses of our age, and is damaging to religion and science in equal measure. ... But there is more to wisdom than science. It cannot tell us why we are here or how we should live. Science masquerading as religion is as unseemly as religion masquerading as science." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Jonathan Sacks

As a consequence of the serious financial crisis three new EU authorities are to be established at the end of the year with the task of supervising banks, insurance companies and stock exchanges. This was agreed on Thursday among representatives of the EU Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission. A sensible decision, the business paper De Tijd concludes: "This is a major step forward, even if the brunt of daily supervision still remains at a nation level. And that's good. A European supervisory body that was also charged with micro-level supervision of all the banks and insurance companies in the 27 member states would be an inefficient colossus. On the other hand, it's not a bad thing that in future there will be a European authority to keep an eye on national supervisory bodies and rap them on the knuckles when needed. ... That the member states are prepared to partially transfer their powers of financial supervision to a supranational body is an important victory for Europe. It will soon be two years since the bank crisis hit us with full force. Since then much progress has been made towards toughening supervision of the financial sector." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Stefaan Michielsen

The trend of economic growth in Switzerland continued in the second quarter of 2010, with the country's gross domestic product (GDP) increasing by 0.9 percent over the preceding quarter. But in the long term the economy could suffer as a result of Switzerland's strong currency, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino warns: "The Swiss franc has risen rapidly against the euro and to a certain extent the dollar too. So far this upvaluation has not harmed the export of goods and services because Swiss quality standards are very high. ... But everything has its limits, as the national bank [SNB] has repeatedly stressed. The second-quarter growth of Switzerland's GDP was due ... mainly to domestic demand. Exports dropped despite expansion. So a cautious approach is still warranted." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Lino Terlizzi

As a consequence of the recent killing spree in Bratislava the Slovakian government wants to tighten gun control laws and ban entirely the possession of automatic weapons. The liberal daily Pražský deník has its doubts about whether such a ban makes sense: "Objectively speaking, the free sale of cars is far more dangerous to our security than that of automatic weapons. The only way to achieve one hundred percent security would be to ban people altogether. But for all the bans, video surveillance and police patrols we put in place, we don't feel any more secure. ... It seems we've got the cart well before the horse here. ... We should lift bans and revitalise our freedom. Of course that involves risks. But that's nothing compared with willingly huddling under the wing of those who abuse our fears so as to supervise us all the better." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Ivan Hoffman

Latvia's Transport Minister Kaspars Gerhards has refused to speak Russian with the moderator of a television programme. The nationalist conservative daily Neatkarīgā rīta avīze has no problem with the politician's attitude: "Certainly, some believe the move was part of a campaign manoeuvre with which Gerhards wanted to come across to voters as a particularly staunch nationalist. But most people applauded the minister's consistent attitude regarding Latvian as our national language. It's not at all infrequent to hear people say: why didn't this happen sooner? But enlightenment is better late than never. ... Even the president [Valdis Zatlers] holds firmly to his promise and speaks only Latvian, and that is to be welcomed. But the most dramatic example was set in February 2008 by Estonian President Toomas Hendrik, who refused to talk Russian on the grounds that speaking it would mean ignoring 50 years of Soviet occupation." (03/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Elita Veidemane