"The never-ending question is back atop the agenda: Can Germany change Europe? The Federal Republic has been in a particularly advantageous position since last Monday, January 1st, presiding as it now is over both the EU and the G8", explains Stéphane Marchand. "The chancellor Angela Merkel is being careful to give a modest tone to her ambitions, but her priorities are public knowledge. She wishes to revive the European Constitution ... . Alas, such a task appears to be diplomatically impossible. Her term as president of Europe befalls the Chancellor at the worst of times. Germany's two principal partners [France and the United Kingdom] are each preparing for a political change-over, thus inhibiting the slightest progress on such a complex multi-lateral subject as is the Constitution. ... So what to do? By combining her European presidency with her world-wide responsibility at the head of the G8, Angela Merkel could attempt to push two of her other proclaimed priorities: global warming and energy provision." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Alemania, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Stéphane Marchand

The daily stresses the amplitude of the task awaiting Germany, to succeed in re-launching the debate on the future of Europe. "Since January 1st, the EU counts two more members, Romania and Bulgaria. This is going to aggravate the lack of integration noted since the EU expanded to 25 members [in May 2004]. And the rejection of the European Constitution also underlined the population's discomfort facing enlargement and especially opposition to the entrance of Turkey, a republic that is indeed secular, but that counts a majority of Muslims among its inhabitants (70 million). This is why the attempt to re-launch the community process in the EU, which will turn 50 in 2007, is difficult. But Europe needs the impetus that Germany hopes to give it. The EU has to define what it is and where it wants to go." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Alemania, » Europa

Commentator Jan Rybar sees the membership of Bulgaria and Romania as a welcome development, but at the same time expresses his doubts about the manageability of a continually expanding EU and pins his hopes on Germany's beginning EU presidency. "Germany has repeatedly stressed that over the next six months it will do everything possible to revive the EU constitution. This is a document that, among other things, is aimed at restructuring the EU and simplifying its decision-making processes. It is also aimed at centralising EU institutions and, as critics fear, removing more powers from the individual states and putting them in Brussels' hands... It remains to be seen whether more cracks will appear in the mythical image of a united Europe. 2007 may well turn out to be a turbulent year for the EU." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Alemania, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Jan Rybář

Marek Magierowski regards Germany's EU presidency with mixed feelings. "Without a doubt, the most interesting aspect for Poland will be what stance Germany adopts regarding Russia. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be able to count on Germany's unwavering support in the controversy about the Russian ban on Polish meat imports or the Baltic Sea pipeline." Magierowski nonetheless also points to certain positive aspects of Germany's presidency for Poland. "If we want to exert at least a minimal influence on Germany's policies over the next six months, we must focus on the central issue of Germany's EU presidency, namely the revival of the European constitution project. This would be a clear indication to the government in Berlin that we are prepared to put aside old conflicts and support our most important neighbour in the EU, and that we, too, are thinking about the future of an integrated Europe and are not just preoccupied with counting out the money we receive from the coffers in Brussels." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Alemania, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Marek Magierowski

Sabine Herre and Daniela Weingärtner point out that even under the presidency of pro-European countries like Luxembourg and Finland, the EU hasn't made much progress. They call for a radical change of course under the German presidency: "Back when the EU consisted of six, twelve and then fifteen countries, it was possible to reconcile the diverging interests of the different member states, but now, with 25, 27 and soon possibly 32 or 33 members it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach a compromise, and when compromises are reached, they're less productive. Perhaps the constitution was Europe's last good compromise. Now the time has finally come to lay the cards on the table. There's no point in continuing to pretend that everyone wants the same thing. The time has also come to allow those who want to go further to do so. For over ten years now the EU has been discussing the possibility of forming a group of particularly integration-oriented states that 'move ahead'. Europe needs an avant-garde like this now – but it may not be enough. We should at least start thinking about the possibility of shutting out those states that are continually blocking EU integration." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Alemania, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Sabine Herre, » Daniela Weingärtner

The Romanian-German writer Herta Müller complains that the EU has not put enough pressure on Romania to confront its past under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu: "Romania has made very little effort regarding confronting its past under Ceausescu's dictatorship. People act as if it had just disappeared into thin air. The entire country suffers from amnesia... Eight percent of the country's Orthodox priests worked for the secret service, the Securitate – they were spies wearing the habit. The same presumably goes for journalists, doctors, professors and lawyers, but we don't know who, and we're not supposed to, either. The reason for this is clear: the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu, his sentence after a quick trial, and his execution, which was engineered by the Securitate itself. The official version is that the secret service was dissolved after the so-called revolution, but its staff was secretly kept under pay. A number of former Securitate members passed directly into the newly founded secret service, while the cleverest of them used the fruits of blackmailing to carve out a cushy position for themselves in the free market economy." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Historia, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Herta Müller

In his work 'Aveuglantes Lumières' ('Blinding Enlightenment'), the French philosopher Régis Debray does away with some of the founding concepts of 18th century European thinking. He explains in an interview with William Bourton the reasons why "Europe is a dissolving dream. ... On cannot but notice that Europe is at its lowest, as is its capacity to act on the running of things political and economic. We may well ask ourselves whether this dream, rationalist and technocratic, was not the child of the Enlightenment. The notion that Reason is the faculty of unity, that economic and technical Reason will be the death of national cultures, that 'economics is clean, politics is dirty', that no conflict between nations is insurmountable, that we can adopt a common language ... All of these postulates are oblivious to an historical fact, which is that all identities are formed 'by opposition'. One takes position through opposition: what counts for individuals counts for nations and even federations." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Filosofía, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Régis Debray

Commentator Bogdan Chirieac fears that the effects of EU membership on Romania's political culture may not be entirely positive. "Europe will become a scapegoat for the leading populist politicians and corrupt, inefficient government officials that we still haven't managed to get rid of. Over the last 17 years, Romania has become increasingly europeanised, but like in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a period of renewed nationalism will follow during which we will hear catchphrases like 'Give Romania back to the Romanians' or 'Romania must be governed by Bucharest and not by Brussels' from leading politicians like President Traian Basescu. The transitional period we had to go through will be nothing compared to this. In the 1990s we were nationalists and extremely poor. Now we will flirt with nationalism in times of unprecedented economic growth." (29/12/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política interior, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Bogdan Chirieac

"Three hundred years ago this month, the Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Union by 110 votes to 67, creating perhaps the greatest and most successful nation the world has known. Yet our commemoration is confined to the minting of a £2 coin and a couple of exhibitions", comments the daily. "This reticence is easily enough explained. Support for the SNP [Scottish National Party] is rising, and most Scots now say they favour independence. ... Today, the Union ensures Britain's place among the powers, as the world's fifth economy and fourth military force. Yes, there are problems with the current devolution settlement, but these can be stitched up under local anaesthetic without major surgery. ... There is no need to break a Union which, in lifting its constituent peoples out of parochialism, renders them a force for freedom and justice in the world." (02/01/2007)

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

"José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's gift for reading the future is risible", writes Franciso-Suarez Alamo, director of the daily, after a bomb exploded in Madrid's airport on Saturday, December 30th. "He only had to declare on Thursday [December 28th] that things been getting better with the ETA [Basque separatist organisation] over the past year for his authority in matters of anti-terrorism to be buried under tons of rubble by the terrorist organisation barely 24 hours later. He only had to put on an optimistic face for an explosion to bring us down from our little cloud to the harsh reality of a country plagued by terrorism. What happened is very serious. Not only because two people probably lost their lives beneath the tons of cement, or because the ETA proved that the cease-fire was not permanent ... . It is very serious because the Head of Government was ridiculed by assassins with whom he had said it was possible to get along". (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » España
Todos los textos disponible de » Francisco Suárez Alamo

For the French professor of philosophy Claude Capelier, the incapacity to find a compromise concerning the island of Cyprus goes to show the end of a European ideal. "If the European Union, which rightly takes credit for the long-term peace reigning among its members, is no longer even capable of getting the Cyprus question out of its rut, then what is it for? ... Discussions have been allowed to be submerged by local rivalries and the false-evidence of treaties, without even taking into account the new horizon that the Union's enlargement could have cleared. We act as if the Turks should give in to Cyprus before being able to seriously broach the fundamental questions of EU accession. ... The right compromise for Cyprus will not be the cause, but the consequence of the progress of negotiations on Turkey's entrance into the Union. This only presumes that we believe in Europe." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política de la UE, » Chipre, » Europa, » Turquía

Since last autumn, Sweden has been governed by a conservative government. The daily admires the "Finnish style" of the new government – the way it makes "quick decisions without moaning about the situation". "The government had a tough start, beset by unusual situations and a hysterical press. Nonetheless, it has managed to introduce the promised changes in record time, including radical new models for unemployment insurance and residency permits for foreign workers who want to work legally in Sweden. Then there's the tax cuts for those with low and average incomes, much needed reforms in education policy, and quite a few other changes. And all this despite the fact that the new government inherited a set of administrative structures that was riddled with the laws of social democracy." (02/01/2007)

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

Gudrun Harrer has no doubts that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused. Nonetheless, she says she would have preferred to see him have a trial that met with international standards – and not to have death penalty. "With the death of Saddam Hussein there is one less mass murderer in this world, but this doesn't make it a better place. Unfortunately, Saddam's execution is not only proof of this, but also represents a step backwards in itself. The worst thing about it all was how the execution was carried out... Washington's referring to the execution a milestone on the path to democracy in Iraq is sheer mockery. What kind of democracy? A mob democracy?... It wasn't the words 'freedom' and 'democracy' that resounded when Saddam was executed, but the name of Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army and the US's number one enemy, against whom it has issued an arrest warrant." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » EE.UU., » Irak
Todos los textos disponible de » Gudrun Harrer

To mark a retrospective of films featuring Lauren Bacall at the National Film Theatre (London) throughout January, the feminist writer and journalist Germaine Greer reflects on the secret of the actress' success and demise, contrasting her to Catherine Deneueve."Lauren Bacall's film career foundered in the 1950s, and never recovered. She has since played cameo parts and had considerable success on the stage. Meanwhile, Catherine Deneuve has been, as well as the face of the republic, the face of Chanel No 5, and most recently the face of cosmetics companies MAC and L'Oréal. The Hawksian [director Howard Hawks who first cast Bacall] woman was an idea that flourished at a time of crisis, in the depression and during the war, when the full energies of women were needed if they were to survive. After the war she was supplanted by the female eunuch, weighed down with huge hair and false eyelashes, unequal to any challenge - all things to all men and nothing to herself." (30/12/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Película, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Germaine Greer

With a heavy dose of self-irony Ivan Michalev describes some of the peculiarities of the Bulgarians, now members of the EU: their well-known hospitality, their predilection for DIY (home-made liquor, homemade vegetable preserves and DIY car repairs) and their sense of solidarity which, in an overcrowded bus, manifests itself in tickets being passed from one person to the next for stamping. The journalist concludes that "Bulgaria is more than just dreary pre-fab apartment buildings, folk-pop music and reusable tops for preserve jars. One should bear in mind that the country also offers a plentiful supply of roses, wines and pretty women. And last but not least are the mathematicians, computer specialists, and a very unique sense of order that can be helpful in all kinds of situations." (02/01/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura cotidiana, » Bulgaria
Todos los textos disponible de » Ivan Michalev