The daily wonders how this initiative can manage to "go beyond mere good intentions. The Alliance needs to hone down its objectives a lot more and, above all, clarify which means it will apply to reach them and play an efficient role. The Spanish government, one of the motors behind this project, should get rid of a few contradictions in its foreign policy. One such discrepancy is the presence of Spain in the Mediterranean Union proposed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the most ferocious opponents of Turkey's EU accession. And yet this country is one of Alliance's leaders. ... It is clear that intolerance, fundamentalism and terrorism need to be fought. So too does the fatalism of those who explain that confrontation and the clash of civilisations are inevitable. In order to achieve this, mere will-power and good intentions have to be combined with alternative proposals." (16/01/2008)

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Laurent Moyse considers that "in many places all over the world, violence in a way exerts the right to refuse dialogue and the recognition of others . ... Without a doubt, dialogue among civilisations is the greatest priority of all. It is difficult to achieve because the world is so full enduring stereotypes, cliché's slapped onto all kinds of human groups, whether minorities or majorities, at some time or other in the history of a given region. For, despite a formidable leap in knowledge, we cannot overlook the ignorance that characterises a large number of humans, too arrogant, too lazy, or simply too stupid to take an interest in others before voicing a definitive judgement." (16/01/2008)

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The former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, High Representative of the Alliance of Civilisations in the UN, explains the aim of this initiative. "In a world marked by such deep imbalance, it is not only nature that is suffering from an advanced state of degradation. Today's societies are also submerged in a much degraded human atmosphere. We have to do something to improve dialogue among people, to turn cultural and religious diversity into an opportunity for real, lasting human development for everyone. ... The complex international situation that took root after 9/11 and with the other terrorist attacks that relentlessly marked this decade, have turned dialogue between civilisations, religions and cultures into a humanitarian emergency that cannot be put off." (16/01/2008)

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Austrian politics – or better said, discontent with the government – has led to a better civil society, says journalist Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi. "Maybe we're experiencing a similar phenomenon to that which Italy has known for decades: The government does not function, but society does. The quality of life is not bad and the economy is booming. People have learned that they can't rely on the authorities and have to take responsibility themselves. Of course, this development also has its disadvantages. Private initiative can never replace the political state. … The elected government has to define the direction to be taken. And where the powers fail, the vacuum is filled not only by the forces of civil society but also by demagogues of all kinds. In the end, a garbage-filled Naples is an example of what you get when both the state and civic commitment fail." (16/01/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social movements, » Austria

The successful writer concealed by the pseudonym Elena Ferrante deplores the situation Naples is currently stuck in. "Rats and dogs are the kings of the town during the night. The rubbish, piled as high as the second floor of buildings, comes alive in the dark. ... During the day, the rats disappear and the dogs calm down, men, women and children reappear... . And this city with its population of one million individuals goes on. What angers the Neapolitan inhabitants is that they have to live with inefficiency and disorder. The criminality that this town knows is a calamity ... The phenomenon of rubbish on the streets is not a new one, it has been repeated for decades. Romano Prodi's efforts to clean-up the city are absurd. Only a madman could think that what has failed to be done over decades can be achieved in a few days." (16/01/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Italy
All available articles from » Elena Ferrante

"After multiple closed-door negotiations, the historical trip Costas Carmanalis will be taking to Ankara next week has been confirmed. It has been almost half a century since a Greek prime minister last paid an official visit to Ankara, which goes to show how important this event is", writes Nikos Meletis. He regrets nonetheless that this visit, the precise date of which has yet to be revealed, is only symbolic. "No agreement on bilateral cooperation or economic partnership will be signed. ... This is a real pity, because there will be no lack of subjects for discussion during this more than controversial visit. Athens is keeping a close eye on the sea bream war in the Dodecanese islands [between Greek and Turkish fishermen]. ... Turkey's request for EU accession seems to have come to a stand-still while Greece is struggling on the European scene to defend it. Agreements on immigration matters also need to be reconsidered." (16/01/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Greece, » Turkey
All available articles from » Nikos Meletis

Last November, thousands of Prague residents and police blocked a neo-Nazi demonstration that was intended to pass through the city's old Jewish quarter. Now, the extreme right-wingers want to march next weekend through Pilsen, exactly on the anniversary of the first deportations of Jews from the city in 1942. Zbyněk Petráček criticises the city leaders for failing to react: They "simply must know what the real goal is behind this supposed protest against Czech participation in the Iraq war, or for free speech – causes that the neo-Nazis use as a front. Computer experts who construct spam filters all know that 'Viaggra' simply means 'Viagra.' And if the authorities don't get it, then the citizens have to step in." (16/01/2008)

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Within the EU, Denmark has a special status and can respond more independently than the other member states when it comes to defence policy, legal and financial issues. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen wants to do away with these special rules, and hold a referendum both on this and on possible adoption of the euro. The paper welcomes the news: "It's only logical to get rid of these clauses – the sooner the better. Without such a transformation, Denmark remains excluded from future important decisions within the EU. … Entry into the euro zone would bring concrete benefits. Both citizens and industry would save time and money. But the topic remains emotionally loaded. It could be the toughest nut to crack." (16/01/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Denmark

Malta's conversion to the euro started on January 1st 2008. The weekly hopes that "the use of the euro will also start the process of integrating a European mentality in Malta too. This involves the inculcating of European values which have survived the course of history ever since the French Revolution 300 years ago. We need to think less as islanders, adopt a greater sense of community, aspire to further integrate the full gamut of human rights which the European Union champions, and strike a fair balance between market liberalism and social welfare. Most especially, we need to cultivate the value of tolerance towards each other by accepting different opinions ... by accepting newcomers to our labour market in the spirit of free movement; by welcoming foreigners who are actively seeking our help. ... Tolerance is a value which has truly rendered European a colourful political reality." (06/01/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Labour market / Services, » Malta, » Europe

The jobless rate in Poland has dropped to 11.4 percent. Only a few years ago it was the highest in the EU, at 20 percent. Paweł Rożyński says this has nothing to do with government policy. "Successive administrations failed to adequately tackle joblessness. But our entry into the EU gave our economy a push, and created hundreds of thousands of jobs. More than a million Poles left the country seeking work abroad. But it's also not good for the country to have a jobless rate that is too low. The quality of services drops, too. Companies have to raise wages faster than warranted by the efficiency of work. That's how they lose to foreign competition. Now is the time to think about the next move. Perhaps the job market should be opened to Ukrainians, or Chinese?" (15/01/2008)

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In his film 'Body Rice', the Portuguese director Hugo Viera da Silva describes the exile of young German delinquents in an open centre for re-education in southern Portugal. For Olivier Ségueret, the film "outlines what might one day be meant by the term 'European Cinema'. ... The most reputed and artist-friendly institutions have financed European films that have sometimes been excellent, but have not contributed to that somewhat unsettling and hazy thing called a 'European identity'. ... This time, such a beautiful and indigestible question seems to have found the light-hearted poetry that it requires: A film like 'Bloody Rice', as detached as it might think itself from these issues, is a typical example of the type of film that only exists because it has been preceded by a constitutional Europe and the new kind of human confrontation that it has engendered." (16/01/2008)

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All available articles from » Olivier Séguret

"Field Studies of Ukrainian Sex," an internationally successful novel by Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko, has become a kind of Bible of the women's movement in her homeland. Zabuzhko explains her book's success in an interview with Werner Bloch: "The fate of the nation, national identity, the past – all these lofty themes were translated into the language of the female body. It was a kind of love story of our national history. ... For a writer, sex is a fabulous laboratory. The heroes are naked – physically, spiritually and psychologically. And yet most authors fail ... Kundera, however, only has to put someone in bed, and we can peel away all the person's layers like an onion. I love it. But Kundera does get on my nerves because he is so macho. I wanted to create a kind of female counterpart to him." (16/01/2008)

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All available articles from » Oksana Sabuschko, » Werner Bloch

Krakow's public prosecutor's office is examining the new book by US historian Jan Tomasz Gross – "Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz" - for possible "slander against the Polish people." Aleksander Kaczorowski protests: "The Krakow prosecutor's office, by considering a suit against Gross' book, is trying to use police-state methods… to nip in the bud an important and needed discussion about the genesis of domestic anti-Semitism. To do so, it is relying on an absurd law, which holds that 'anyone who publicly accuses the Polish nation of participation, organization or responsibility in communist or National Socialist crimes' faces a possible prison sentence of three years. … So that's the result of the so-called history policy, one of the most important catchwords of the PiS [the previous ruling party, Law and Justice]. But it has nothing to do with the rules of a democratic state." (16/01/2008)

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All available articles from » Aleksander Kaczorowski

Entry into the Schengen area could have unpredictable consequences, writes Erkki Bahovski. "Reading the news, at first I thought it was April Fool's Day: A Lithuanian woman got lost and ended up in Tartu [Estonia] instead of Kaunas [Lithuania]. It reminds me of the Soviet movie, 'The Irony of Fate,' where the hero ends up in the wrong city. Schengen has given us open borders, and in the spring this also applies to air traffic. Will the Soviet-era stories repeat themselves, in which a drunkard wakes up in Vladivostok? Will passengers arrive in the Spanish city of Barcelona instead of the Estonian city of Kuressaare? Just because the borders are gone, that doesn't mean we should lose our orientation." (16/01/2008)

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"Cervelas and the little bread rolls made from rye and wheat that are imperatively called Bürli are crucial ingredients of Swiss identity. ... And yet here they are, both under threat from a common evil named globalisation", writes an alarmed Elisabeth Eckbert. "The Swiss sausage can only be made with a sort of skin made up of cow guts from Brazil. Alas, the mad cow disease has cast its shadow there and now Europe is banning all imported intestines from South America. And thus we are faced with the horrific prospect of a Euro 2008 [co-hosted by Switzeland] without grilled sausages. Bread too, is under threat, but not from any shortage, rather from a cross-canton standardisation since Pouly [a major industrial bakery] swallowed up nineteen bakeries [run by its rival] Alfred Polli. Bread is indeed multiplying, but it is becoming forcibly industrialised." (16/01/2008)

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All available articles from » Elizabeth Eckert