Donald Bandler and Peter Rashish of Kissinger McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm, are cautiously optimistic about Austria's leadership stint. "Because it combines low unemployment, labour market flexibility and respectable economic growth with social equality - but nonetheless is in the geographic core of the EU - Austria is well placed to build on the UK presidency's efforts to revive the stalled Lisbon strategy of reform. (...) The Austrian EU presidency will face risks, the foremost of which are at home. Parliamentary elections will be held in 2006, either in the spring (during Austria's presidency period) or in the early autumn. (...) No better time, then, to let the enlightened, cosmopolitan spirit of Mozart, whose 250th birthday will be celebrated next year in Vienna, guide the country's turn at the EU helm." (30/12/2005)

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The future of the Balkan States will also be decided in Vienna, writes Ralf Leonhard on the beginning of Austria's EU presidency. "What we are talking about here is nothing less than the collapse of Serbia, the old opponent to Austrian power politics in the Balkans. In May the EU will decide whether Romania and Bulgaria will be allowed to join in 2007 or be forced to wait until 2008. The most complicated issues, however, do not lie directly within the competence of the EU. In the first six months of 2006, Montenegro will decide per referendum on the future state structure of Serbia-Montenegro. And the negotiations on the definitive status of the Serbian province of Kosovo, which is currently under international administration, are due to begin at the end of January. These will be held in Vienna it is true, but they will be conducted within the framework of the UN. (30/12/2005)

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According to Christian Ortner, the EU faces a great challenge in its foreign policy, namely the dispute regarding Iran's nuclear project. "The question arises – and if Austria is very unlucky it will have to be answered during its presidency, but more likely within the next few years at most – as to which of two risks the EU is willing to take. The risk of accepting a fascist Islamic state equipped with nuclear weapons together with all its fantasies of extermination, or the risk of an attempt to eliminate Teheran's nuclear facilities in what must be a joint effort with the military intervention of Israel, the US and Europe." (30/12/2005)

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The Czech Republic is confronted with a dilemma, writes Lubos Palata. He sees the upcoming presidential elections as a choice between two evils, as there are only two candidates and neither could be less suited for the job: the current president Vaclav Klaus and his longstanding opponent, former prime minister Milos Zeman. "It's nothing personal; each has their qualities", the commentator says with a touch of irony. According to Palata, Klaus is a confessed nationalist and anti-European who is not welcome in any of Europe's main capitals and Zeman, who is inclined to drink too much and make crude comments, could be an even worse choice. In the end he recommends a comeback by Vaclav Havel because he remains "the number one Czech politician". (29/12/2005)

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Nearly 60 percent of Spaniards believe there are too many immigrants in their country, according to the findings of a poll published on Thursday, December 29. After unemployment, immigration is the second biggest concern of those questioned. "The fact is that the large flow of immigrants to Spain in recent years, while positive in an overall sense, may have reached its saturation point beyond which we can more clearly see certain negative phenomena, such as a disruptive effect on jobs and salaries or problems involving the integration of foreigners." Faced with this growing anxiety, the newspaper stresses the need for a political consensus. "This is a necessary goal for obvious reasons of political responsibility tied to the collective demand for social stability." (30/12/2005)

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Acoording to Andrzej Kaczynski, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) will propbably set itself new goals now that Janusz Kurtyka has taken over as president. Kurtyka yesterday replaced Leon Kieres, the founder of the institute who is unpopular with the conservative parliamentary majority. "The future of the IPN remains unclear. Will it continue to safeguard the archives and use them to prosecute national socialist and communist crimes, or will it be dedicated to purging Poland's political landscape of former secret service agents?" (30/12/2005)

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Aivars Ozolins soothes fears that Latvia could become as "cosy a country as Luxembourg" over the next few years. He points to the ice hockey world championship in Riga and the never-ending dispute over the border treaty with Russia. "The parliamentary elections are scheduled for October, the NATO summit will take place in Riga in November and the EU funding dispute has not yet been settled. This will all provide a bit of excitement in political and everyday life over the coming year. We're also terribly behind as far as the implementation of the Schengen Agreement is concerned. By the time the elections are held, we'll know whether we'll manage to meet the criteria by 2007, as planned. The economy is admittedly still advancing rapidly, so that Latvia will soon no longer be the poorest EU state even if inflation remains high and we have to wait at least another year to join the euro zone." (30/12/2005)

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The daily says the country is caught up in "a real international spy thriller" following allegations in a local newspaper that Greek and British secret agents kidnapped and interrogated 28 Pakistanis in the wake of the July 7 terror bombings in London. "Why is the Greek government remaining silent? And why is it launching a judicial inquiry? Perhaps to provide cover for the secret services?" the daily wonders. "The debate has started and has gotten people talking outside the country. While the opposition is demanding full disclosure of all aspects of the affair, the communist party is taking a stand against European anti-terror measures that strike a blow to fundamental democratic rights and freedoms." (30/12/2005)

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The stock market crash six years ago seemed to confirm the views of those sceptical about the new economy. But now the new economy is a reality and we can only imagine its immense potential, as the Stockholm newspaper writes. "Today, most of the promises the stock market gurus made but were unable to keep have come true. Whether we like it or not is irrelevant. Both gloating and shouts of joy are superfluous. The new economy is here to stay. Now it all comes down to making the most of it to create new jobs, boost democracy, improve schools and create a global network and a more dynamic public." (30/12/2005)

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Annick Rivoire runs an interview with Stéphanie Lemoine and Julien Terral, co-authors of 'In Situ: a panorama of urban art from 1975 to the present'. She deems it to be "the first work that offers a collective vision of a highly creative and heterogeneous movement". And a chance to debunk some conventional wisdom. "It seemed absurd that we should perpetuate this division between street art and grafitti", tells Julien Terral. "We tried to demonstrate that it wasn't a matter of this irreverent and rotten grafitti on the one hand, and these creative and aesthetic street murals on the other." Moreover, "the Parisian movement is not very popular at the grass-roots level, unlike the original New York graffiti art. Perhaps there are more street artists in the suburbs today than when the movement began, but with a few rare exceptions, traditionally all the big names in this movement have been the children of affluent families or of intellectuals."     (30/12/2005)

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Joachim Güntner and Marc Zitzmann take stock of the 2005 film year, which saw the number of people attending French and German cinemas sink by between 13 and 16 percent compared to 2004. "The official version was that Hollywood was to blame because it failed to come up with the necessary US blockbusters for 2005. The aging German public and changing target audiences (young men in particular stayed away from cinemas) are also named as factors. The conclusion to be drawn from such explanations is that cinema operators are unwilling to admit responsibility for their own part in the crisis. Only seldom is mention made of the small fortune that moviegoers have to fork out for their film experience nowadays – and that's not including the obligatory coke and popcorn. Another admission that is seldom made is that the branch has failed to pick up on innovations since the multiplex trend took off." (30/12/2005)

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Yevgeny Sudbin, a 25-year-old Russian immigrant living in southeast England, who won his first international piano competition at the age of 10, receives high accolades from interviewer Damian Thompson. "Following the release of two CDs this year, critics are prophesying that Sudbin - who spent part of his childhood in the basement of a refugee hostel - will be one of the greatest pianists of the new century. 'In terms of aristocratic poise, he matches even [Italian-born Arturo Benedetti]Michelangeli,' wrote Julian Haylock, editor of International Piano magazine, of Sudbin's debut disc, a Scarlatti recital issued by Bis. 'This is staggering playing, so spontaneously alive that one can scarcely believe it was taped in the studio'." (30/12/2005)

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Charges that Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk had "denigrated the image of the Turkish army" were dropped by Turkish prosecutors on Thursday, December 29. Pamuk had asserted in an interview that the army could be one of main obstacles to the development of democracy in a country. "This decision is a little breath of fresh air for freedoms in Turkey. But this country has a long way to go if it still wants to be a part of Europe, mainly in ensuring that its legal code is harmonised with the laws in force in the 25 member states," the daily writes. Orhan Pamuk is also facing charges for "insulting Turkishness", stemming from statements he made on the Armenian genocide. He is due back in court on February 7." (30/12/2005)

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"Record companies have never earned as little as they did in 2005 – and there has never been so much good music", Jens Balzer comments with reference to the latest albums by Franz Ferdinand, Rufus Wainwright, Adam Green, Devendra Banhart and Coco Rosie. He goes on to take a closer look at the music industry's new strategies. "As has been the case over the past few years, the big record labels sought to save themselves by criminalising customers. In Germany alone, they sued several thousand 'illegal' file sharers while at the same time employing criminal practices to serve their own purposes. The people at SonyBMG are particularly good at this. On the one hand they tried to boost the use of their products on American radio with a refined system of bribery. On the other they astonished the world with a new copy protection programme which plants itself deep into computer operating systems and then transfers personal data about the CD purchaser to the record label via the Internet." (30/12/2005)

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"The blogosphere is a brilliant tool for teachers. It is with this idea in mind that a group of inspired teachers have started the BLOPE awards for the best educational blogs in portuguese and spanish," the Lisboan daily reports. For Vítor Relvas, one of the teachers behind the initiative, "the use of the blogosphere in teaching is a work in progress." Students prefer to write for a real audience and not just "for the teacher's red pen". The newspaper finds that there is a greater motivation to write when the finished product is published online. "Blogs can bring vitality back to the learning process," Relvas concludes. (30/12/2005)

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Agnès Fine, an anthropologist at Paris's School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), analyses the evolution of French laws concerning the handing down of patronymics. Under a new law passed a year ago, parents may give their children the last name of either the father, the mother or both. A century ago, in the not-too-distant past, parents had no say over their child's first or last name: they were part of a long tradition in which the father's last name was automatically passed down and where the first name was chosen by the godfather and godmother (...). Today, parents are free to choose the first name and, to a certain degree, the last name. The family is no longer conceived as a link in a generational line comprised of living and dead people, but rather as a space binding emotional and educational ties between parents and children in which the mother has claimed a rightful place - herein lies the importance of being able to hand down her name." (30/12/2005)

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