The European affairs columnist Thomas Ferenczi considers that among the difficulties that the EU is confronted with in the Balkans, "The most delicate question remains that of Kosovo. The European future of Kosovo, explains a public official has explained, is 'hostage' to the future status of the province. The outcome, say the negotiators, is 'crucial' for the stability and security of the Balkans ... Sixteen years after the beginning o the wars that drenched former Yugoslavia in blood, the consequences continue to weigh upon the Balkans. Europeans, who failed to prevent these tragedies, are right to consider that the only way to respond correctly to the various forms of nationalism is to offer the states of the region the perspective of [EU] accession. ... Brussels should not let the situation degenerate. Status quo would be worst possible solutions." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Europa, » Serbia
Todos los textos disponible de » Thomas Ferenczi

Drago Flis, an expert on Albania and Kosovo, calls for a speedy solution to the question of Kosovo's status: "There are no longer any grounds ... for postponing the decision about independence. ... However we must bear in mind that the international recognition of new states always takes time. Should Kosovo be recognised as an independent state by the US and the majority of EU member states, this would only speed up the process of the isolation of Kosovo." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Serbia
Todos los textos disponible de » Drago Flis

"In the Balkans, the war has been won, the genocide launched by Milosevitch has been stopped and an opportunity has been given to Serbia to follow the path of civilisation and democracy leading to Europe", comments Hermann Tertsch. "But what has happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan shows that in the Balkans too, it is possible to lose peace after winning a war, even 18 years on. European history is full of examples of such periods of wavering that prove to be mere truces preceding the resumption of conflict. This scenario seems all the more probable in Kosovo in the light of the fear generated by the possibility of independence illustrated by growing resistance to the plan drawn up by former Finnish president, Marti Ahtisaari." (04/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Política de la UE, » Europa, » Serbia
Todos los textos disponible de » Hermann Tertsch

The sociologist Eric Gordy notes that "the Serbian government's rhetoric on Kosovo has been escalating over the past several weeks", but considers this "is not about influencing the outcome of the negotiations. It is not about protecting the remaining Serbs living in Kosovo either: if the government was concerned about them, it would have any number of topics to discuss with the negotiators from Kosovo, ranging from the protection of religious and cultural-heritage sites, the freedom of movement and the right of return, the resolution of conflicts over property, the assurance of minority representation in local government, and the prevention of periodic outbursts of violence against the Serb population. Although the government has shown much willingness to use these issues for rhetorical purposes, it has done little about addressing any of them in detail." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Política de la UE, » Europa, » Serbia
Todos los textos disponible de » Eric Gordy

The chief editor of the weekly considers that "Fukuyama was right about the fact that the number of so-called 'democratic' countries is relentlessly increasingly. It is of course greater than in October 1989, on the eve of the fall of the Berlin wall. ... An unprecedented number of free - or almost free - elections are indeed being organised in the world. Is this not reason to rejoice? Not so fast! There is, alas, still a gap between formal democracy and real democracy. From North to South, moneys buys votes and the media and political dynasties, as if by a ruse of History, are settling into the heart of 'democracies'. ... We can of course be contented with the minimal definition proposed by Karl Popper. For this liberal philosopher, democracy is only the possibility occasionally offered to the population to 'refute the people in power', otherwise said, to oust outgoing incumbents." (04/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Filosofía, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Philippe Thureau-Dangin

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his intention of remaining active in politics after the next election. In an interview with Klaus-Helge Donath, the popular Russian satirist Viktor Shenderovich explains what Vladimir Putin means when he uses his key term "stability": "There are different forms of stability. A tree is stable. It lives, parts of it die, and other parts grow. This is stability through change. Our stability, on the other hand, is that of a morgue where the dead stay in the same place with the same yellow tag on their toes. Nothing happens, there's no life in the place, but people know where to look for the tag and where the bodies belong. In Russia stability means no politics and the atmosphere of a refrigerator." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Wiktor Schenderowitsch, » Klaus-Helge Donath

Debate is currently raging in Poland over whether the ruling PiS party is abusing the memory of the victims of the Soviet massacre at Katyn for its election campaign. Director Andrzej Wajda, whose new film 'Katyn' is currently a hit at Polish cinemas, wrote a letter to President Lech Kaczynski calling on him to postpone a commemoration ceremony planned for this weekend in Warsaw until after the elections. Kaczynski has now agreed to the request. Igor Janke praises the president: "His policy on history is the best aspect of his presidency. ... Graves play just as important a role as economic development in the life of a normal nation. The idea of commemorating the murdered Polish officers in spectacular style is a great one and certainly worth implementing. But scheduling the ceremonies so close to the elections has aroused unnecessary sentiments. It would be a bad thing if the celebrations commemorating this great Polish tragedy became entangled in the reckless machinery of the election campaign." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Historia, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Igor Janke

According to Georgi Gospodinov, the teachers' strike which has gone on for ten days now is about more than higher salaries and educational reforms: "The teacher is on the dark side of Bulgarian society. His presence on the streets and the radicalisation of the strike is an attempt to step out of this life in the shadows. ... Because as far as light is concerned, there is another, parallel Bulgaria. These are people you never read about in the papers unless there's a fire, a flood or a crime. In this other Bulgaria dressmakers, cleaning ladies and museum staff work for tiny salaries without having any rights and with false insurance documents. ... The teachers' demands for better pay are a sign of their desire for respect." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Bulgaria
Todos los textos disponible de » Georgi Gospodinov

Luboš Palata compares the current dispute between Slovakia and Hungary over the Beneš decrees with the process of reconciliation that began ten years ago between Czechs and Germans. The bilateral declaration of 1997 "clearly states that history, regardless of how we assess it, should not affect the present or the future. ... Thanks to this declaration, Czech victims of the Nazis have received compensation and young people from both countries receive funding for joint initiatives. Moreover, a discussion forum for Sudeten Germans and Czechs was founded. ... Despite the problems, the Sudeten Germans are the most important tie between Czechs and Germans ... So far Slovaks and Hungarians have failed to see the Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia in this light." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Historia, » Alemania, » Hungría, » La República Checa, » Eslovaquia
Todos los textos disponible de » Luboš Palata

The weekly informs us that "Europe's political leaders are bracing themselves for a big new row about global competition: over China. ... Camps will quickly form. Unsurprisingly, France is likely to lead calls for 'negative reciprocity': ie, slamming markets shut unless China heeds EU demands. Britain will take the opposite view, arguing for open markets as desirable in themselves. British officials are hostile to calls for action against 'sovereign funds' flush with the cash of foreign governments, seeing these calls as another recipe for protectionism. Germany may be the swing voter in such cases. Yet regardless of the economics, an argument can be made that it may become politically impossible for Brussels to seem inactive on China without further damaging fragile support for free trade. Already, complaints about Chinese goods being dumped at below production cost take up an inordinate amount of time." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Comercio, » Ásia, » Europa

The British band Radiohead wants to distribute its new album on its own homepage rather than through a record company or a commercial MP3 portal like iTunes. Fans who download the album or individual songs can pay as much or as little as they like. The daily describes this as a new phase in the digital revolution. "Theoretically, the Internet makes intermediaries redundant: music can be uploaded directly from the studio onto the web. Now an established band like Radiohead has chosen this approach and is leaving it to the customer to fix the price. But how much goodwill can these artists expect? ... The music industry will no doubt keep a close eye on the results of this experiment - or in other words the average price customers are willing to pay for an album." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Medios de comunicación online, » Consumidor, » Gran Bretaña, » Global

This World Championship has sent the entire French nation into a rugby frenzy, Christian Kortmann notes. "A rugby match is as exciting as football and boxing combined, and the sport can also look back on an ethnologically interesting past. Invented in 19th century England, rugby made its way to New Zealand and then spread throughout the southern hemisphere. The topographical particularities of each region - hard dry pitches in Australia, muddy fields in Scotland - led people living there to develop their own playing style. Rugby theories are generally more audacious than the insights of the football intelligentsia, because the difference between sport and life is more pronounced. Rugby is not the kind of game that can simply be reproduced in playgrounds or in the garden before a barbecue. It's more the kind of game which makes you marvel at the players: rugby players do back-breaking work on the field and thus present us with an intense physical battle the likes of which is not to be found elsewhere in post-industrial consumer societies." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Deportes, » Francia, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Christian Kortmann

"If there is one unmissable work in the Athens Biennale being held between September 10th to November 8th, it is 'The List'", comments Evi Eleyftheriadou, a journalist of the daily, which has published the list. "A list adorned with 8,855 names of people aged between 18 months and 70 years old. A list of shame, because these are the people who lost their lives trying to get into Europe between 1993 and 2007. European borders are difficult to cross and the European dream is perilous for the thousands of immigrants fleeing their countries. Coming from Iran, Afghanistan, Africa, or Pakistan, their sole objective is Europe. The escorts often demand a lot of money and chances of reaching the destination are meagre. This piece sums up this macabre dream and raises awareness of the bitter reality of illegal immigration. Exhibited in Amsterdam in 2002, it makes one shudder, but the intention is to make people stop and think about the evils that surround us." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Exposiciones / Museos, » Grecia
Todos los textos disponible de » Evi Eleyftheriadou

Last summer Xavier Aldekoa went to a concert of a new kind of classical music at the Musée des Sciences de Valence. "A character of the video game Zelda appears on a giant screen. The show seems about to begin. Suddenly the lights go on and the music rings out. The orchestra does not however play Vivaldi's Four Seasons, or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. These are the sound tracks of video games like Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros that are being played. The frontier between classical music and digital music has vanished in the video game field. Symphonic orchestras are giving live interpretations of the evermore elaborate music of the most popular video game. No longer contented with simply accompanying games with a series of beeps and hoots, the industry now invests as much in sound tracks as in the graphics or the practical manageability of games." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Música, » Cultura cotidiana, » Medios de comunicación online, » España
Todos los textos disponible de » Xavier Aldekoa

Finland has a good reputation within the EU, writes Björn Mansson. "Compared with other member states, and even with other Nordic states, we are like a model pupil who follows the rules and doesn't cause any trouble. We don't hold unnecessary referendums, we implement all the directives and accept everything Brussels decrees, from the euro to the new EU treaty." Mansson only sees problems as far as foreign policy is concerned: "In Finland we point our finger at countries like Poland and Estonia, which have failed to resolve their problems with Russia. Yet we shouldn't forget the Russian customs duty on timber. There are people who regard Finland as a troublemaker in the relations between Russia and the EU even though we know we're in the right. But the Poles think they're right too." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Finlandia, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Björn Mansson

The journalist Kevin Myers contemplates national flags: "The most distinctive and probably best flags in the world are the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack, the Japanese sun, and the Canadian maple leaf. The worst and the dreariest are probably the family of tricolours, which characterise most European countries, save for Scandinavian countries, which have variations on the crosses and psalter which go into the Union Jack. There is a simple lesson here. A flag has to have a strong symbol, or has to consist of at least one strong primary colour: black/red/blue. ... Alas, the Irish tricolour has none of the visual qualities which make a great flag. Its green is tepid ... the Irish tricolour is bland, bland, bland, amongst an entire continent of tricolours. Moreover, which one of us can instantly identify the German flag from the Belgian, the Dutch from the Italian, the Luxemburgese from the Portuguese? A medley of stripes: meaningless." (05/10/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Kevin Myers