euro|topics - Jürgen Dunsch

02/12/2008

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Dunsch, Jürgen

5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 23/10/2008

German finance minister attacks banking secrecy

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has attacked Switzerland's banking secrecy in order to raise additional funds for Germany's budget deficit, the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Switzerland is an important financial centre. However, even the Swiss authorities cannot just ask for banking records when they suspect citizens of tax evasion. But Steinbrück cares little about national sovereignty when it comes to raising money for his budget, which is about to run into a huge deficit. ... The OECD's "blacklist" brings Switzerland close to the status of a banana republic. This makes it even easier to demand a comprehensive "exchange of information," the fully transparent citizen. If Switzerland falls, the EU states Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria will have to give in as well."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 28/07/2008

Hope for trade

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is confident that the WTO negotiations will reach a successful outcome: "[The director general of the WTO] Pascal Lamy was last week among the incorrigible optimists who still believed that the Doha round on the liberalisation of trade would be successful. ... Lamy was pinning his hopes on the talks in the smaller forum of the seven most powerful trading groups. ... This group has found a compromise whose most prominent feature is a major reduction in EU agricultural subsidies (which even then will still be too high). The sudden power game of the major nations, which until then had been exchanging tough words, took everyone by surprise. Many states will try in the next few days to make adjustments to the principle agreement on agriculture and industry or to gain advantages in the services sector. But the future path is basically clear. There is thus good reason now to hope for a compromise that will boost world trade."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 14/12/2007

The Swiss populist Blocher sent to the opposition

According to Jürgen Dunsch, Switzerland's period of 'comfort' has come to an end. "The party that emerged as the strongest and largest after the October elections is looking at the shattered remains of a system and facing the threat of a major split. It's now time to say goodbye to the way politics have been conducted up to now, but the country is not ready for this step. This will soon become clear through the institutions of direct democracy. The SVP has already announced that it wants to make much more frequent use of referendums. But such a course could turn this instrument, which is essentially aimed at disciplining the parties, into a means for the SVP to carry through populist demands. What this could mean for relations with the EU, which has always adopted a critical and even inwardly disapproving stance towards the party, doesn't bear thinking about. ... The government system is in urgent need of a major overhaul."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 23/10/2007

The victory of Swiss populists

"The Swiss People's Party has achieved the greatest majority since 1919 in Switzerland," writes Jürgen Dunsch, and he attempts to explain the SVP's victory: "With its simple formula, the party attracts all those who feel overwhelmed by globalisation and modernisation. And nowadays this by no means refers to just the country bumpkins. Many Swiss feel besieged, not least by the EU, which completely encircles the country. The SVP has made xenophobia socially acceptable. Now there's an opportunity to correct this through referendums on issues such as the continued free movement of persons, but the SVP has already proven that it's well able to exploit the instrument of the referendum to achieve its own ends."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 04/05/2007

Switzerland cancels price fixing for books

The paper comments that the Swiss government has lifted price controls on books in the German-speaking part of Switzerland - such controls never existed in the French part - and wishes Germany would do the same. "The Swiss have always had a problem with dismantling cartels. So the decision that publishers, authors and booksellers no longer can depend on 'cultural support' is even more remarkable. In the short term, prices in German-speaking Switzerland will hardly drop below the German level. The country is too much of a high-priced island for that. But the decision underscores just how out-dated the fixing of book prices has become. In general, dealers in Germany themselves already avoid the rigid price structure in any way they can. Just rummage through the tables of 'modern antiques.' In the book market, too, the law of supply and demand achieves the necessary balance for those involved... In the French-speaking part of the country, there is no price fixing. Nevertheless the number of titles remains large and the density of book trade even higher than in the protected German-speaking part."

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