"The planned return to the negotiating table of the EU 'troika' and Iran on January 18 has been more than compromised by Tehran's decision to resume its nuclear activities," observes Patrick Sabatier. "The regime of the mullahs has opted for escalation, via baby steps, and while maintaining an aura of mystery regarding the ultimate objective of its gambit. (...) Iran has the right to develop a nuclear programme as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, a right that it intends to assert. But the real problem is that, aside from its aggressivity, Iran kept the Natanz facility and the truth about its activities a secret before being caught with its hand in the nuclear cookie jar. (...) The mullahs will continue scheming in order to get closer to a nuclear weapon for as long as they do not have to fear provoking a confrontation." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Oriente Próximo y Medio
Todos los textos disponible de » Patrick Sabatier

According to Christian Ultsch, the time has come for Europe to give up its independent stance regarding Iran. "Empty threats won't stop Iran building a nuclear bomb. EU negotiators must have realised this by now. Constantly pulling back for fear of escalating the situation only serves to encourage these troublemakers. Even if it goes against its nature, the EU must take a hard line now. If it doesn't it should go back to following the Americans' lead without complaining, at least this time." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Christian Ultsch

According to Miloslav Surgos, Iran is mocking Europe with its decision to restart its nuclear programme. "Via Wolfgang Schüssel, its current president, the EU has warned Iran that it may impose sanctions. However such threats will be met with nothing but laughter in Tehran, which sees them as an expression of weakness. When the relatively harmless Jörg Haider came to power, the EU reacted quickly and with excessively harsh measures. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad poses a far greater threat than Haider, but the Union just keeps on giving warning after warning. Warnings must be followed by action." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Miloslav Surgos

In response to Iran's restarting its nuclear programme, Oliver Meier of the Hamburg Institute for Peace Research and Security Policies calls for the US to play a more active role in the dispute with Tehran. Speaking in an interview, Meier says: "The United States must change its stance. It should not threaten to start a war but instead reflect on what it could offer Iran. It's now very difficult for the Europeans to negotiate with Iran. If the issue of the Iranian nuclear programme is referred to the UN Security Council, this would not in any way signify the end of the diplomatic process. At the moment, it's important to ensure that the situation doesn't escalate and turn into a bitter conflict. It's vital that we avoid a situation in which one side reacts to the decisions of the other with even harsher decisions." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Oliver Meier, » Radek Nedved

"Europe sits atop a Christian base," the historian Élie Barnavi, Israel's former ambassador to France, asserts in an interview led by Elizabeth Lévy. "The substrata, the true infrastructure of nations, are a common culture, a common language and shared adversity. We will not escape history by denying it. The result we see is that Europe is clearly an economic reality, maybe a political project, for some people an ideological choice - but it is not a cultural entity, something carnal. This is not a Europe we feel like getting into bed with. (...) To say that Europe has Christian roots does not mean it must remain Christian until the end of time. But the base must be strong in order to absorb the shock from added items. Enlargement was carried out under the moral and political pressure of the new arrivals before consolidation had been completed." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Elie Barnavi

Author and journalist John Pilger asserts that "freedom is dying" in Britain as the government uses the anti-terror fight as a pretext for stifling dissent - with the tacit complicity of the BBC and other mainstream media. "Between 11 September 2001 and 30 September 2005, 895 people in total were arrested under the Terrorism Act. Only 23 have been convicted of offences covered by the act. As for real terrorists, the identities of two of the 7 July bombers, including the suspected mastermind, were known to MI5 [the domestic intelligence agency], yet nothing was done. And Blair wants to give the security services more power. Having helped to devastate Iraq, he is now killing freedom in his own country. (...) Looking in the mirror means understanding that a violent and undemocratic order is being imposed by those whose actions are little different from the actions of fascists." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » John Pilger

The newspaper hails the fact that the Netherlands has agreed to take in about 30 illegal immigrants who were being held in detention centres on the island. This is "a great step forward in the resolution of a problem that has exercised the government and, indeed, the media, for more than a year now. Of primary importance in this unhappy business has been the vindication of the government's determination to place the complications and difficulties posed by asylum seekers and illegal immigrants squarely in a continental context. Malta, it has been argued, is too small, its population density already too high, to absorb anything but a minimal number of immigrants. The European Union needed to be persuaded that the situation that has developed over the past two years is more than just a local difficulty for the Maltese government to cope with. Asylum seeking and illegal immigration across the Mediterranean was a challenge that needed to be recognised by the EU."  (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Malta

The newspaper reports on disgruntlement between Belgium and the Netherlands. The cause is the Netherlands' introduction just under two years ago of tighter regulations for allowing the families of immigrants to join them. Applicants must prove they have sufficient means at their disposal if, for example, a wife wishes to join her husband in the Netherlands. As a result, Belgium has become "an alternative for Dutch citizens of foreign descent over the last few years", the newspaper reports. "Unlike the Netherlands, Belgium makes no distinction between its own citizens and those from other EU states." Immigrants move to Belgium and have their parents, grown children and grandchildren follow them, the newspaper points out. "The Netherlands, however, only allows wives to follow their husbands." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Holanda

The Danish government was right to side with the newspaper 'Jyllands Postens' in the Mohammed cartoons debate and insist on freedom of the press and freedom of opinion, the Stockholm newspaper writes. "The government left no room for doubt in this issue, and has therefore earned the respect and support of its EU counterparts. However, like its EU counterparts, it has also failed to accomplish the much more difficult task of establishing an open society for all its citizens. Part of the Muslim population in European countries is still having difficulties coping with an open society." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Dinamarca

"As an exercise in restoring people's faith in government, the 'respect' crusade against anti-social behaviour has not scored highly," the daily asserts, referring to Prime Minister Tony Blair's latest campaign to restore civility to British society by imposing heavy fines for rude behaviour and disciplinary classes for parents of offenders. "There is nothing harder for a government to achieve than changing human behaviour. Curbing incivility - noisy neighbours, teenage tearaways, Saturday night yobs - is less serious but much more difficult than tackling terrorism. (...) To achieve these goals, however, a fundamental principle, the burden of proof, is to be reversed. If you are found late at night with £1,000 [EUR 1,460] in your pocket, beware. (...) Mr Blair has launched a dangerous assault on a basic liberty. MPs and the courts must not allow him to succeed." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Gran Bretaña

Thousands of women from across Italy are expected to converge on Milan on Saturday, January 14 - coming on foot or by bus, train or plane - to demonstrate against the proposed change to the abortion law and the fact that pro-life movements have been received by members of parliament. The journalist and writer Cinzia Sasso is incensed over the regression in the situation of women in her country: "At a moment when Spain is kicking off a campaign to encourage the sharing of household chores and Norway is requiring companies to make sure that at least 40% of their board of directors is comprised of women, in Italy the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Catholic political powers are going on the offensive to raise doubts about a law that has been on the books since 1978." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Cinzia Sasso

As a result of the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, Europe is looking for ways to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas supplies. Economist Miklos Hegedüs takes a different stance: "It's riskier for the Europeans to regard this dependency, which, after all, is a mutual one, as a vulnerability. Consumers and suppliers alike are at each other's mercy. Russia cutting off the gas supply is a hypothetical, abstract possibility that is just as unlikely as it starting a nuclear war. Moreover, the alternatives would cost a lot of time and money and would damage the EU's competitivity." (09/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Economía, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Miklos Hegedüs

The Statistical Office of Latvia recorded an inflation rate of seven percent for 2005 – a record level in the EU. "The residents of Riga, in particular, were faced with sharply increasing prices, but salaries here are also higher," Juris Paiders explains. There was a marked increase in the cost of renting accommodation and the cost of real estate, "but the news of the introduction of the euro caused the sharpest increase in prices." For the country's poorer citizens, a 20 percent increase in gas prices and a 17.6 percent increase in the price of bread made "the official inflation rate seem artificially low and more like an election campaign trick, because the prices which are relevant to them increased by much more than seven percent."  (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Juris Paiders

In the run-up to the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Manuel Brug was consternated to see how the "Mozart Year" is being celebrated in Salzburg. "There it is, the real Mozart hell: 'Next to Mozart', wall to wall. 'Miracles Wax Museum' recently opened and is waiting to receive those who find waiting in the queue to see the original Mozart rooms with all the Wilson paraphernalia too boring. Salzburg's answer to Madame Tussaud's comprises 2,400 square metres of fake 'old Salzburg' consisting of compressed wood and cardboard all cobbled together, complete with 77 wax figures, some of which can talk, ranging from an archbishop to an old-style dentist. The whole thing is rounded off with a barrage of pseudo-educational waffle from the all-pervading sound system and a multimedia spectacle. You can have the Queen of the Night scream at you or undergo the Magic Flute's test of fire and water inside a rumbling, rolling tin barrel."  (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Austria
Todos los textos disponible de » Manuel Brug

"A strong Europe is one that also defends cultural diversity. There is no contradiction between European integration and cultural diversity," Bernard Foccroulle, president of Opera Europe (a network of 97 operas throughout Europe), explains in an interview. Asked about the cultural borders of Europe and the enlargement towards Turkey, he replies: We must learn how to better understand Islam. But intercultural dialogue goes beyond interreligious dialogue. This applies as well to the relationship between East and West, between the culture of young and old people, between the city center and the suburbs. Dialogue allows you to allay tensions in a city, not because everyone likes the same thing, but because everyone learns to accept differences." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Bart Dirks

The German film director Volker Schlöndorff, in an interview led by Quico Alsedo that coincides with the release in Spain of his latest film, 'The Ninth Day', shares his view that there is no such thing as European cinema. "It doesn't really exist, given how it has been continually losing ground since the 1970s: 90% of films are controlled by large corporations, that is to say, by the United States, and 10% by the domestic industry, which does not have any European features." (11/01/2006)

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Todos los textos disponible de » Volker Schlöndorff

"The Netherlands are getting belated revenge for the Second World War," the daily notes ironically, referring to the new fashion fad that's making waves in the football world. "This will become clear to Germans when they see the Dutch fans showing up in their country for the football World Cup. A Dutch company has come up with a novel product intended especially for the Dutch section of the stands: a plastic orange Nazi helmet. Since the item went on sale on the Internet two weeks ago, 15,000 have been sold - half of the total stock. The helmet's creator, Weno Geerts, says it is meant as a joke and that the helmet is a symbol against violence in football. A joke that is not to the liking of the Royal Federation of Dutch Football, which condemned the initiative." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Holanda

The daily reacts to the growing popularity in the country of schwyzerdütsch (the local german dialect), a phenomenon that is the subject of a new series of studies by the Forum Helveticum, an association dedicated to promoting dialogue within the confederation. "Regarded as very fashionable, the swiss-german dialect is increasingly supplanting the language of Goethe. (...) Worrying, the Forum Helveticum warns. Especially if one considers that young people leaving school early sometimes have gaps [in their knowledge] that can be a handicap. And what can be said about the difficulties encountered by the country's linguistic minorities and foreigners when faced with swiss german? So, is dialect a prison? Perhaps. But the fact that this way of speaking is experiencing the flush of youth again can be seen as an opportunity. (...) Linguistic diversity, complicated and chaotic, comes at a cost, to be sure. But it is also the price of having true cultural richness." (11/01/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Suiza
Todos los textos disponible de » Valentine Zubler