The German government is currently compiling a climate agenda based on the climate protection goals Europe plans to achieve by 2020. In an effort to reduce energy consumption, old heating systems and electrical installations are to be replaced and old buildings renovated. Konrad Mrusek comments: "Private households and businesses will have to invest heavily in heat insulation or new heating systems - they will finance the lion's share of the climate protection measures. But the concrete figures aren't very conclusive because these are investments. So it comes down to whether this climate protection programme generates enough profit in terms of energy saving and reduction of greenhouse gases. The nation is evidently willing to do something about the climate, but it will make sure that environmental measures take account of the economic aspects." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Medio ambiente, » Energía, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Konrad Mrusek

Austria's minister of transport Werner Faymann has proposed abolishing the 100 km/h speed limit which applies on many of the country's motorways. Gerald John is appalled: "The individual states imposed these limits to reduce emissions and dust pollution, but now the transport minister wants to snatch away their powers. In future the 100 km/h speed limit is to apply only on days when pollution levels reach or exceed the respective limits - at any rate, less frequently than before. From the point of view of environmental policy Faymann is back paddling, because speed limits serve not only to reduce noise levels and prevent accidents, they also contribute to climate protection. The fuel consumption of most cars rises rapidly once they reach the 100 km/h limit; and with many it goes up by as much as 50 percent. Despite all the hype about bio-fuel and hybrid cars, the most effective action car drivers can take against global warming is to hit the gas pedal less often." (14/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Medio ambiente, » Infraestructuras / Tráfico, » Austria
Todos los textos disponible de » Gerald John

The weekly considers the climate-change protest camp that has been organised at Heathrow airport this week. "The campaigners hope that by disrupting an airport that serves some 200,000 flyers a day they will further their cause. 'Plane Stupid', an anti-flying group, gives a flavour what the protesters want, demanding 'airport expansion plans scrapped, a tax on aviation fuel and an end to short-haul flights'. Specifically, the campaigners object to plans for a third runway at the airport to accommodate growing numbers of passengers. ... Most environmentalists think that the only solution is to stop people flying. Making air travel more expensive, say through hefty fuel taxes, would put off price-sensitive leisure flyers. ... The air-travel industry should have to stump up for the pollution it causes. And anyone priced out of a cheap holiday in Spain might like to consider a week-long camping break near Heathrow." (14/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Medio ambiente, » Gran Bretaña

Writer Reinhard Jirgl hopes that the public interest in a Stasi document ordering the shooting of escapees at the border between former East and West Germany will lead to a series of new trials against the culprits. He points out that legal instruments such as those used for the Nuremburg Trials should be made avail of to this end. "Not only are the perpetrators at all levels of responsibility comparable [with those in the Nuremburg Trials] but also their respective systems - the Nazi and the Stalinist systems, which are as alike as two brothers. Indeed, they must be compared with each other; otherwise we would lack important knowledge about the functioning of dictatorships. After all, no political system is innately immune against the return of such manifestations! And what's more, a 'murky' form of justice such as that resulting from the Nuremberg Trials is still better than no justice at all. Yet the Stalinist criminals of the GDR regime have yet to receive the sentence they deserve." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Historia, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Reinhard Jirgl

Romania is marking the beginning 70 years ago of Stalin's reign of terror in the Soviet Union, during which thousands of people died. Writer Matei Visniec reflects: "When we remember this tragedy we must also remember those who caused it. The communist parties of the West and those organisations that inherited their ideas should also be reminded of how blind and foolish they were back then. When and how will we remember the terrible metaphysical inability of the majority of European intellectuals who couldn't be both anti-fascists and anti-Stalinists at the same time? When and how can one remember the unconsciousness of great figures such as Cocteau, who every now and then uttered phrases like 'Dictators promote the protest of art without which it would die.' We need to remember the manipulations of European intellectuals who allowed dictators to kill without scruples." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Historia, » Francia, » Rusia, » Europa, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Matéi Visniec

In an interview with William Bourton, the French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus expresses his fear of separatist movements in Europe. "The question is not whether there is a collective identity. That is irrefutable in the cases of the Basque country, Catalonia and the Flanders region. The question is whether or not these distinct identities can live with others. Basically, do we want to apply the principle of one land, one people, one language, one state? ... The Catalonia example is striking, with non Catalan-speakers being treated as second class citizens, forbidding them, for example, jobs in the public service. There is a risk of balkanisation in Europe, with each ethnical group wanting its independence. This is a paradox in view of globalisation. The balkanisation prevents the emergence of a European power and plays into the hands of the American super-power. It complicates the integration of people from immigrant backgrounds, fuelling 'ethnicism' and racism." (14/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Integración, » Minorías, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Jean-Yves Camus, » William Bourton

The Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond published a white paper on independence on August 14th, urging for an 'open, robust and dignified' debate on home rule, or extending the Scottish parliament's powers. The Scottish daily comments. "Acknowledging the range of opinion between the current position and independence, the white paper holds out the prospect of a multi-option referendum rather than a straight choice on separation from the UK. ... Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom (the polls suggest most Scots want it to stay that way, albeit with Holyrood [Scottish Parliament] having a bigger say in setting the agenda)... . The exercise will be seen as flawed or devalued unless the debate reaches out to encompass all those in the constituent parts of Britain who have a say in this country's future. Perhaps a federal outcome, with more powers devolved from the centre in London to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (possibly the English regions), will be the eventual result." (15/08/2007)

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

The debate goes on in Italy after a fire that caused the deaths of four children last week. Mario Marazzati, the Sant'Egido community's spokesperson, considers that "the west has not paid its dues to the gypsy Holocaust. And yet 300,000 of them were swallowed up into the Nazi extermination camps (The very doubt concerning the exact figures goes to show the indifference of historians). The West hasn't developed the antibodies that would stop the spreading of anti-gypsy feeling. There has been no compensation, no collective guilt, no shame. ... In Italy, the life expectancy of a Romany gypsy is 45. This is not because they are burnt alive in their caravans, but because of their living standards: illness accidents, malnutrition. ... The problem doesn't lie in the number of crimes they commit, because a normal country knows how to punish the guilty. The crimes are caused by poverty and marginalisation, not by 'gypsy culture'.” (14/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Minorías, » Italia, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Mario Marazziti

France is suspected of having struck a civil nuclear deal with Libya amid negotiations for the release of Bulgarian medics. The columnist Raphael Vassallo is horrified by collaboration with "a dyed-in-the-wool military dictatorship with no respect for (or even concept of) human rights – a country in which democratic opposition is banned by law, where free speech does not exist, and where torture and human rights violations are an undisguised, everyday fact of life… This is precisely the kind of country that gets rewarded with a nice memorandum of understanding, signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for a nuclear reactor to power its national desalination programme. ... What exactly did Libya do, to suddenly enjoy the trust of European countries like France, while harmless little Malta evidently does not? (For let's face it: the very least France could have done was consult us, before giving nuclear technology to the only country to have threatened us with military action since World War II…)." (12/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Francia, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Raphael Vassallo

The four parties in Sweden's conservative governing coalition have rejected the idea of drawing up a joint manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections owing to the lack of consensus. "The fact that they won't be presenting a joint election manifesto doesn't necessarily mean that the alliance... is adopting a passive stance on EU policies," the newspaper comments. "During the Social Democratic era EU issues were all too frequently pushed aside. This was owing to the anti-EU stance of the red-green parliamentary mainstays [the Greens and the Left Party] and the inner conflicts within social democracy. However, it's in the... nation's interest to focus more on EU issues. The best approach would be to integrate them into normal political debate - and to stop focusing solely on the referendum issue." (15/08/2007)

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

A few weeks ago Hungarian writer Péter Nádas warned in an essay that Hungary's democracy was under serious threat. Author Iván Sándor analyses the background for this claim: "The governing parties are observing the rules of the constitution and of democracy, but the main opposition party [the right-wing conservative Fidesz party] is not. It's doing politics through ritual performance and barely bothering to distance itself from the right-wing radicals. Calls for the introduction of direct democracy are becoming increasingly frequent, not for the purpose of lawfully monitoring the government or as an opposition initiative based on the right of assembly, but for the legitimisation of populist demands through the masses." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » Iván Sándor

In an interview with Christophe Alix, Jacques Attali, president of the NGO PlaNet Finance, analyses the crisis that is currently shaking up the stock market. "The American economy is pushed towards ever-more speculative and risky investments, such as in real-estate. What we have just experienced is a jolt - and certainly not the final collapse - of this casino-economy. ... By injecting money, central banks have so far only maintained the illness, they haven't cured it. Like a junkie in withdrawal, it needs to be given drugs first, in order no to die. But the banks should not be limited to this role of dealer! ... [This crisis] should be taken as an opportunity to understand that the world cannot be governed by finance alone, that western nations should give themselves the means to protect the control centres of their industry and research." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Comercio, » Consumidor, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Jacques Attali, » Christophe Alix

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), which has its headquarters in Vienna, yesterday expressed "extreme concern" about the repeated verbal attacks of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico against the Slovakian media. In an interview with Pavel Urban Jan Fülle, longstanding president of the Slovakian journalists' trade union, also criticises Fico's behaviour towards journalists. "This government has no media policy. Fico has no one to advise him on these matters and no one to contradict him. Fico describes a tabloid as the country's best newspaper, and the government releases more information to the gutter press than to serious newspapers. It's succumbing to its own poor taste in media." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Política de los medios de comunicación, » Eslovaquia
Todos los textos disponible de » Pavel Urban, » Jan Fülle

The "Mittelfest", a Central European festival, took place in Cividale del Friuli, a small Italian town on the Slovenian border, in July. Moni Ovadia, director of the festival, explains his concept of the role of contemporary theatre to Júlia Váradi. "I believe that a theatre performance can contribute more to explaining complex human problems than the lengthy lectures of teachers, professors and experts. We who have grown up on the stage know what a strong impact an idea given expression on the stage can have on the audience. Not only the intellect, but also the stomach, the heart and all the sensory organs participate in this process. I'm convinced that in Europe and in other places human rights will only be properly respected once they get into people's blood... You may call me naïve, but I firmly believe that theatre is one of the few effective ways to accomplish this." (12/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Escenarios, » Europa, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Moni Ovadia

Three years after the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens, Costas Cartalis, former chairman of this event's organisation committee, signs an article in which he regrets that the country didn't take advantage of this opportunity. "Only a few days ago, the Ministry of Development announced a series of measures for the development of the territory. But not once did the term 'Olympic Games' appear in the seven page document. In other words, the ministry has decided that the developmental thrust created by the Olympic Games in Athens ... will not fit into the urban planning scheme. ... Also, a few days ago, the 'Olympic real estate' company published a positive report on the use of Olympic buildings [over the past three years]. A few stadiums have indeed been used. However, the truth is that three years after the end of the games, the buildings remains closed to the public, more petrified spaces than dynamic places." (15/08/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Infraestructuras / Tráfico, » Grecia
Todos los textos disponible de » Costas Cartalis