The financial daily attributes the collapse of the Doha talks to more than just a disagreement over agricultural protection. "The deeper cause is that the few who enjoy trade protection have proved far more politically effective than the majority who stand to gain from liberalization and often do not realise it. If there is a future for free trade, that will have to change. ... The case for trade liberalization is simple: it is not wise to throw rocks into your own harbours. Liberalization has run aground because its defenders have failed to make that simple argument. They have relied instead on the mercantilist fiction on which the entire World Trade Organization is constructed: that trade negotiations are supposed to balance the pleasure of increased export opportunities against the pain of cheap imports. ... Free trade's defenders now have some time to develop a new sales pitch. Perhaps they should try the truth." (25/07/2006)

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Martin Kugler blames the obstinacy of Europeans and Americans for the failure of the most recent WTO conference in Doha: "The WTO talks have failed de facto, and with them the WTO as a whole. Founded a decade ago on the basis of the GATT agreements to be the 'strong arm of globalization', the organization has made much progress in its bid to remove trade barriers: duties on goods have gone down, other obstacles to free trade have been reduced, and customs regulations have been simplified. The globalization of trade we are now experiencing would not be possible without the WTO. But now there is the danger that the organization will be limited to the role of administrator of the status quo – a court presiding over the settlement of disputes. It will no longer be able to influence the direction which the world economy takes, because the US and an increasing number of European states have announced that they will be concluding more bilateral agreements. This leaves developing countries entirely defenceless and at the mercy of the 'super powers'." (25/07/2006)

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Gonzalo Fanjul Suarez, the coordinator of the Spanish NGO Intermon Oxfam, denounces the "modern marketing" of the WTO's rich countries. "Five years ago, they promised to level the playing field of international trade and place the interests of poor countries at the centre of the process. ... But presently, the poor countries seriously risk emerging from these negotiations in a worse position than when they went in. The powerful farming lobbies in Europe and the United States succeeded in blocking the reforms that the developing countries have been seeking for years. However, the rich countries demand that the poor countries remove barriers to their domestic industrial and service markets. ... The Spanish government proved especially cowardly, taking cover behind France, which seeks to protect its agricultural privileges. Spain showed that it is incapable of calling for greater solidarity with the poor countries." (25/07/2006)

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Editorialist Andrea Bonanni believes poor countries are the victims of the breakdown in negotiations, and by extension, Europe. "So the WTO talks have collapsed, and no one knows if and when they will be able to resume. Multilateralism, already politically moribund with the growing crisis afflicting the United Nations, now risks taking a lethal blow in the economic sphere. For Europe, as always a giant with feet of clay, this marks the start of a new phase of crises, with serious repercussions. ... At any rate, the end of multilateralism fortunately does not spell the end of the world market, nor the end of the rise of trade liberalization." (25/07/2006)

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In a statement to the daily, Stephen Hawking, a famed scientist who suffers from motor neurone disease, has defended stem-cell research against "reactionary" forces in Europe and the US. His comment came before the EU agreed on Monday, July 24 to continue funding research - under strict conditions - on cells taken from human embryos. "Europe should not follow the reactionary lead of President Bush, who recently vetoed a bill passed by Congress and supported by a majority of the American people that would have allowed federal funding for stem cell research. Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson's and motor neurone disease from which I and many others suffer. ... The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection because the embryos are going to die anyway. It is morally equivalent to taking a heart transplant from a victim of a car accident." (25/07/2006)

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"My country is governed by twins. Each day my country becomes more ambiguous and melancholic," writes Polish author Andrzej Stasiuk on the subject of Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "At times they look like tired, old babies. This surely conceals a deeper truth, the hidden meaning of democracy. My country has chosen the best representatives it could have, because my people are tired, exhausted – they remind me of exhausted children. This weariness, usually a weakness of old age, is striking us in our youth, in our very cradles. Even before we've learned to walk we feel as exhausted as after a long march. Locked in the nursery, we breathe the air of the old people's home. And there can be no better actors for this national drama than the tired, troubled twins, with their round faces. It could well be that the Polish nation has instinctively elected its own flesh and blood." (25/07/2006)

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An international conference on Lebanon opens in Rome tomorrow, July 26. Attending will be foreign ministers from the western powers and Arab countries, as well as the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora. Franco Venturini, an editorial writer on international affairs, notes that "in indicating the objectives of the meeting, Massimo D'Alema [the Italian foreign minister] remained cautious: to relieve the humanitarian crisis, verify the conditions for a cease-fire, set in motion the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force. Italian diplomacy is doing its job. But there exists another agenda for this summit, one that is more courageous and more risky, and therefore less promoted - the one that focuses on two difficult questions called Syria and Israel." (25/07/2006)

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South Eastern Europe correspondent Martin Woker gives a very informative account of Kosovo's situation. Kosovo is currently a Serbian province, but its future status is being negotiated – up to now without firm results. "The fact is that Kosovo needs national insignia more than ever – and that means having its own flag. It's possible that Kosovo, which is now a Serb province, will obtain some kind of independence by the end of this year. Because Kosovo (although de facto a republic) never held the formal status of a republic within the multiethnic state of Yugoslavia, up to now it has never needed its own coat of arms. There are two reasons why the idea of an independent Kosovo using the Albanian flag is problematic: firstly because this would only confirm the claims of those who see an independent Kosovo simply as another step towards the formation of a 'greater Albania'. Secondly, such a move would be tantamount to the Kosovo Albanians laying exclusive claim to the new country." (25/07/2006)

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François Héran, a sociologist and demographer, speaks to Catherine Coroller about the decision by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to grant residency papers to 30 % of the 20,000 illegal immigrants who have filed requests. "Six thousand people out of a [French] population of 60 million is 1/10,000th, or 0.01 %, and 20,000 is 0.03 %. For a statistician, this is next to nothing. ... But the government fears an uncontrollable rush of illegal immigrants. This is difficult to prove, just as it is hard to prove the opposite metaphor - that closing the borders traps immigrants by dissuading them from returning home. Little research exists on the subject: data is lacking and too many parameters move at the same time. People talk about the surge in migration in the wake of the 1997 granting of residency papers, but it remains well below the level seen in Europe." (25/07/2006)

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Faced with a surge of illegal immigrants, several countries appealed for European solidarity during a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels on Monday, July 24. "We are recovering lifeless bodies like dead fish from polluted rivers. Can we just stand by and watch all these people dying on Europe's doorstep without doing anything ?" admonished Tonio Borg, Malta's interior minister, in remarks reported by the Belgian daily. "Malta is second in the world in terms of the numbers of refugees per resident. Patrols will be set up off the coasts of Malta and the Canary Islands. These patrols may fail, but we have to try. If we leave it to countries to get by on their own, the situation will backfire in our face some day. It must be said that many countries seem insensitive to this problem." (25/07/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Migration, » Europe
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Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists, insists on the expulsion of Slovakia's governing party Smer, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, from the faction. The reason for his demand is Smer's coalition with nationalist and ultra-right parties. "Social democrats cannot tolerate racist or ethnic hatred, in this case the declarations of hate aimed at the Hungarian minority and the Roma living in Slovakia. A decision as to whether contact with Smer will be broken off can be expected at the next committee meeting in October," the newspaper quotes Rasmussen as saying. It adds: "The result will be that Slovakia's position within Europe will be weakened at all levels, and also that Prime Minister Fico will not be invited to meetings between party members prior to meetings of the European Council of Ministers." (25/07/2006)

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The US wants to set up a missile defence system in Poland similar to the one it plans to set up in the Czech Republic. Jedrzej Bielecki supports the idea: "The Polish government is facing one of the most difficult foreign policy decisions it has seen for years. Meeting the demands made by the Americans would mean that soldiers over whom Poland basically has no control would be stationed on Polish soil for the first time since the withdrawal of the Red Army. But sending the Americans away would be just as risky as accepting their conditions, because this is the first real opportunity to truly strengthen Poland's security. In view of Russia's increasingly authoritarian tendencies and the political crisis in the EU, this should be one of the Polish government's top priorities." (25/07/2006)

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All available articles from » Jedrzej Bielecki

"This is an historic day," proclaims journalist Giorgos Papaionnou. "It is the official closing day for bids to be tendered in the privatization of Greece's second biggest national bank, Emporiki. A last-minute dramatic development cannot be ruled out. After many ups and downs, [French bank] Credit Agricole is the sole bidder that remains in contention. But it is possible that three private Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank and Pireos - may have joined forces to present a joint offer today. Nonetheless, a buyout of Emporiki by Credit Agricole would represent a real step forward since no Greek bank is powerful enough to integrate into the world market. There remains another obstacle: the Greek interior minister, Giorgos Alogoskoufis. He does not think the French offer is good enough. But the minister forgets that Greece right now needs liquid assets." (25/07/2006)

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Zoltan Lomnici, chief justice of Hungary's Supreme Court, has called for a new law that would ban criticism of court decisions in daily and weekly newspapers and allow such criticism only in professional journals. Zoltan Kovacs, editor in chief of the weekly Elet es Irodalom, defends the right of the press to express its views on everything. "Since the fall of communism, many hopes have not been fulfilled, but keeping the general public informed remains important, despite certain side effects. It has a positive impact on structures that remained closed for 50 years. It prevents state authorities from cutting themselves off and escaping social control... Zoltan Lomnici thinks this control doesn't work and should therefore be restricted. It would be more convenient for him to have discussion of his decisions limited to professional journals, because they have fewer readers. It's tough having to deal with the criticism of the press." (21/07/2006)

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The annual Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth opens tomorrow. This year German playwright Tankred Dorst is directing the entire Ring Cycle, with Christian Thielemann as conductor. Manuel Brugs is not overly enthusiastic at the prospect. "Nowadays Bayreuth simply reacts; it hardly ever takes the initiative. An 80-year-old playwright who has never before directed an opera has been chosen for the task of putting this 16-hour-long colossus of an opera on stage by an 86-year-old festival director – it's like a bad joke... Only seldom is art the main objective here, as Richard Wagner once demanded it should be. So yet again what is becoming an increasingly trivial opera soap featuring the Wagner clan is taking the rap. And because the conspiracy of silence can no longer hold tight, more and more indiscretions are filtering through to the public, eagerly waiting to lap up the slightest whiff of scandal from the Bayreuth menage. Rumour has it that Wolfgang Wagner has taken to wandering round aimlessly at rehearsals and picking fights with his inexperienced directors, telling them how he thinks things should be done and stubbornly refusing to back down. Meanwhile Gudrun goes round with a face as if her dog had just died." (25/07/2006)

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Philippe Mathonnet paid a visit to the Liner Museum in Appenzell, which is currently showing an exhibition dedicated to the Swiss painter Johannes Itten, "the most eccentric of the Bauhaus professors". The journalist explains why Itten's teaching, which bears the stamp of Zoroastrianism, marked his era. "His main contribution was to analyse, to theorise how colours react in relation to one another. By constructing a vocabulary and grammar of colours, Johannes Itten allowed modern artists and designers to speak in a fully artistic language. It is he who underlined the interactions and contrasts between colours, their way of repelling one another - to be applied in creating more lively compositions. He is the one who demonstrated that warm colours appear to move forward and cold colours, back - as well as other effects. Hence, a real guru." (25/07/2006)

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