The liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza draws a bitter comparison between the behaviour of the EU over the Polish shipyards and its reaction to the crisis in the banking sector. "One day the EU is prepared to bend its rules to allow subsidies amounting to at least 10 billion euros for the banking sector, claiming this is not 'harmful government aid' but a 'market operation'. The next the very same competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes from Holland, declares that no allowances can be made in the case of the Polish shipyards. They must pay back the money they received from the government although it amounted to much less and was distributed over a period of several years. Unfortunately the European Union's conduct is entirely legal. The brutal reality is that when a powerful bank on which half of the European economy depends is rocked to its foundations, a Sunday afternoon chat is enough to get the thumbs-up." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Konrad Niklewicz

The EU is not solely responsible for the situation of the shipyards, writes Igor Janke of the conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita, commenting that Poland has long failed to act for fear of the unions: "Regardless of whether the bureaucracy in Brussels is acting rightly or wrongly, the matter of the Polish shipyards has been dragging on for years now. None of the many Polish governments has been able to find a solution. ... Since hordes of miners showed up in Warsaw with their pickaxes, no one has had the courage to take on the big unions. ... The state railways, the mines and the shipyards have remained low-profit enterprises. All of the shipyards should be private, like Stocznia Gdańsk. This example shows that Brussels supports private enterprises. But the shipyards have remained in public hands, either because people are too much in awe of their historic and symbolic value as the 'cradle of Solidarność', or because they are intimidated by the strong unions." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Igor Janke

The Italian daily La Repubblica highlights the symbolic significance of the Polish shipyards: "The legendary shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin where, with the strikes for the free trade union, Solidarność was born and the long march of the Soviet Bloc countries towards freedom began ... are facing permanent closure. The EU Commission responsible for competition has declared the Polish government's rescue plan incompatible with current subsidy regulations. The closure of the shipyards would be a hard blow for the region and for the liberal government of Donald Tusk, who himself was one of the heroes of Gdansk's fight for freedom. The intransigence of the EU would be the downfall of the symbolic birthplace of the movement that set the stage for the fall of the Berlin Wall ... Since 1989 and the non-violent transition to democracy Poland has become a driving force behind the economy of the new Europe. Sadly, ailing companies have no place in an efficient economy, even if they are a symbol of the revolution." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Andrea Tarquini

The Guardian comments on David Cameron's closing speech at the Conservative Party conference: "David Cameron yesterday attempted to shed the gaudy clothes of an opposition leader and dress himself in sombre prime ministerial colours. His speech in Birmingham was mature, sometimes dull, but benefited from a sure-footed solidity that went some way to answering the 'novice' taunt. ... The Tory leader's criticism of Labour was insidious but sharp, driven by an inner certainty that he would make a better prime minister than Mr Brown . Everything he said depended on this steely self-belief: it remains the most striking thing about him. ... Mr Cameron talked a lot yesterday about character and values, but government involves more than instinct. ... Cameron Conservatism is fired by a rejection of Labour methods; it also draws strength from an alternative vision of a better society. Whether that destination means anything, if the route to it remains so thinly drawn, voters will have to decide." (02/10/2008)

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Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has repeatedly requested meetings with leaders in Moscow, so far in vain. The problem lies with his choice of words in describing the invasion of Georgia, writes the Svenska Dagbladet. Bildt had compared the Russian justification of the move with Nazi Germany's stance before invading Czechoslovakia. "Bildt's requests for a meeting have met with a firm Njet - although Sweden currently holds the presidency of the Council of Europe. Or perhaps precisely because of that. Both before and after the five-day war Russia has been very clear that it is not interested in conciliation. Until now, for example, no one was sure if the EU observers ... would be allowed into the so-called buffer zones outside South Ossetia. [Former Social Democratic foreign minister] Jan Eliasson says a Swedish foreign minister must be able to talk with all  parties. But the problem is that the Russians don't want to speak with Bildt. In this way they are only deepening their isolation." (02/10/2008)

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The liberal weekly newspaper Týždeň asks what is behind the current mood of conflict between Slovakia and Hungary, answering: "The psychosis about Hungary, the 'natural enemy', which haunts the minds of a large political class in Slovakia, is entirely irrational. The extremist scene in Hungary has other targets: the Roma, the Jews and the homosexuals, but not the Slovaks. While here in Slovakia relations with Hungary are a matter of daily concern, Hungarians don't think at all about their relations with Slovakia. These are only talked about when Ján Slota [president of the right-wing Slovak National Party, part of the ruling coalition] speaks up, or the Slovakian parliament reinforces the Beneš decrees. ... Although part of the Hungarian minority in Romania openly calls for autonomy, relations between Hungary and Romania are untroubled. And Hungary also has far better relations with Belgrade than we do, although Budapest has recognised Kosovo. ... Our policy is a combination of prejudice and a fatal misunderstanding of our neighbour. The Hungarian threat is nothing more than Slovakian paranoia." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Peter Schutz

On October 3 Germany celebrates the 18th anniversary of its reunification. "The great miracle of German unity is a thing of the past," writes Bernhard Honnigfort in the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau. "The little GDR dictatorship is falling into oblivion and the gaps in knowledge of reunified Germany's younger generation are taken for granted just as their gaps about the preceding centuries are. This is something we should find regrettable. We have come to take Germany's reunification for granted, even if there is still talk about the walls in people's heads. Sometimes a look across the border helps: compared with Belgium, with its Flemish and its Walloons, and compared with the Czechs and the Slovakians, who went their separate ways after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the Ossis [Eastern Germans] and Wessis [Western Germans] are like jam and bread. The reunification has become part of everyday life. But closing the gaps in the standards of living in our country is not. This is why every time the Day of German Unity draws near there is talk of the Aufbau Ost [rebuilding of the east German economy]." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Bernhard Honnigfort

French Socialist MEP Henri Weber analyses in Le Monde the causes for the global financial crisis: "The first cause of the crisis we are now seeing is ideological: at the end of the 1970s the liberal ideology which had been discredited and marginalised after the Great Depression of the 1930s made a triumphant comeback. ... Criticism of the failures of the state and its bureaucracy took the fore over criticisms of the market's shortcomings. In its modern form, neoliberalism comprises two postulates. The first holds that the free market allows the best distribution of resources and optimal economic growth. According to the second, the market has self-regulating abilities that render any intervention by the state not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the economy. ... 30 years of deregulation and liberalisation under the leadership of the United States and the large multinationals have now resulted in the worst financial crisis since 1929. ... The liberal myth of the market's self-regulatory ability has suffered tremendously - as has its corollary that the state's role is to sit back and watch." (01/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Henri Weber

In his blog Tamáska Hitetlen reflects on the social problems of the Roma in Hungary, where they represent the country's largest minority: "When we hear of social and cultural misery, of lives lived on the periphery and marginalisation, that ethnic minority which can be instantly recognised by their facial features, gestures and language inevitably comes to the minds of the majority of people in this country. Instead of seriously examining this complex social problem people talk of the 'gypsy issue'. Time and again I hear blatantly racist and ethnocentric opinions to the effect that the Roma should solve their own problems and finally leave the majority society - the non-Roma - in peace. ... This is said by people who otherwise believe that people are born free and cannot be blamed for their origins. ... If anyone had the possibility of breaking out of the [Roma] community, which represents a burden and as a member of which one suffers only disadvantages and discrimination in this country, they surely would do so." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Tamáska Hitetlen

A court in Lithuania has confiscated the Latvian airline airBaltic's assets in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, triggering a wave of indignation in Latvia. The court action was brought by Lithuanian airline flyLAL which claims it is being put at a disadvantage by restraints of trade at the airport in Riga. The daily newspaper Latvijas Avize fears an escalation of the dispute: "This conflict would perhaps not have taken on such dramatic proportions had the battle between two competing companies for a free position in the market not once again turned into a political dispute between two sister nations. This is what happened with the disagreements over the milk buy-off and the curd cheese confectionary and also over the issue of unclear borders. But with airlines there's the additional problem that many of them are at least partially state-owned and therefore regarded as more than just companies offering transport services; they are seen as a country's visiting card." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Dainis Lemesonoks

On Monday, Italy's trade unions approved a rescue plan for Italian airline Alitalia, which is facing bankruptcy. It is to be sold to the CAI consortium. Until now the trade unions had resisted this course of action because it puts thousands of jobs on the line. The business weekly Capital criticises the unions for initially rejecting this plan. "It's obvious that cutting costs also involves axing jobs. This had to be discussed with the trade unions, who would not hear of such sacrifices. They wanted the investors' money alright, but only if it was to be spent as before and no jobs were lost. That proved impossible. The unions seemed to prefer bankruptcy to changing their style of working. For years Romania's trade unions reacted in the same way to the privatisation of companies. ... This type of trade union is typical of Europe and it is preventing Europe from becoming a global economic force, no matter how many Lisbon agendas [the EU is supposed to become the most competitive and dynamic economic area in the world by 2010] we ratify. The other side of the coin could be that the Old Continent probably has the most satisfied employees. ... The question is how much of this satisfaction can be preserved if the economy fails to keep up with the times." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » Ionut Popescu

In the left-liberal daily El País José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, calls for a concerted European strategy in the face of the financial crisis: "Later there will be time to analyse the situation. What is important now is that the political decision-makers find the right answers: that they react to the acute crisis, protect the citizens' savings, ensure that companies have enough credit at their disposition and create a better system of control for the future. ... Now is the time to move beyond national perspectives. If this crisis has made one thing clear it is that today the international financial markets are so tightly interwoven that national borders hardly matter any more. If banks and financial institutes function at an international level, those who control the system and protect the interests of their customers must also be able to take swift action at a transnational level." (02/10/2008)

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All available articles from » José Manuel Barroso

With an eye to the Nobel Prize, the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asks whether the bank crisis in the US is pulling American literature down with it: "The latest news from Stockholm evokes the possibility of extensive collateral damage. ... Twenty volumes by Philip Roth stand untouched on the bookshelves alongside a dozen works by John Updike ... and many others. ... This was a stock market crash the likes of which the literary world has never seen. At the very least, if we believe Horace Engdahl, none of these authors is worthy of a Nobel Prize. With the ice-cold calculation of a federal reserve bank president ... the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy has stated that contemporary US literature is below international par. America's writers ... are too isolated and too uninformed to write good literature, he says. ... But if a country is down for the count, you should avoid treading on its writers." (02/10/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Sweden, » U.S.