NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's visit to Ukraine prompts the daily Delo to report on the dispute over Russia's Black Sea fleet which is based in Sevastopol. The city on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea is celebrating the 225th anniversary of its founding. "Yushchenko [the Ukrainian president] suffered the greatest disappointment at the NATO summit in Bucharest last April. He had hoped to enter the MEP action plan together with Georgia; this constitutes the first step towards formal membership of NATO. NATO's new model student faces two major problems: the first is opposition to membership within Ukraine and then there is opposition from Russia. Russia's deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov once again warned Ukraine: 'I am convinced that the number of Russian tourists on Crimea's beaches will go down. I very much doubt they will be replaced by tourists from the US, the UK and Germany.' Ivanov was playing the tourism card. 'I congratulate the residents of our heroic Sevastopol on the occasion of its jubilee', he added. Ukraine pricked up its ears at his use of the word 'our'." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Eslovenia, » Ucrania, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Polina Frelih

The newspaper Diário de Notícias writes that allowing Ukraine to enter NATO would be a provocation to Russia: "Opinion on NATO membership is divided in Ukraine. But a possible expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance is above all causing worries to the North, in Russia. Moscow can only construe the continual eastward expansion of NATO ... as an attack. ... Russia is no longer as strong as the former USSR used to be, but it continues to see itself as a major power. And major powers do not like it when they are provoked directly on their doorsteps. Provoking the Russia of Medvedev and Putin without any geopolitical reason for doing so means running an unnecessary risk. And it remains to be proven that Ukraine's membership can be of any advantage to NATO." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Ucrania

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived in Kiev with a delegation on Monday to discuss the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine. Despite protests from Russia, radio commentator Ceslovas Iskauskas sees the country on the right path towards the West: "What is it they say? Things move on. Ukraine became a member of NATO's space control programme on 13 June, and Kiev has long been participating in almost all the alliance's operations, whether in Afghanistan, Kosovo or patrolling activities in the Mediterranean. Ukraine is now preparing to participate in NATO's fast intervention troops, which are deployed to crisis regions. However, most of Ukraine's military equipment is outdated, and this confirms the West's fears that the country's membership will prove hard to swallow for everyone involved." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Ucrania, » Rusia, » Europa, » América del Norte
Todos los textos disponible de » Ceslovas Iskauskas

A draft law has been introduced by the Italian government which is meant among other things to protect those in high offices from criminal prosecution. The Italian daily La Repubblica comments: "Right in the middle of the honeymoon the Italians were enjoying with their new government, the true face of Berlusconi has once more emerged with full force. Unchanged and calculating, the Prime Minister has done away with institutional masks, and stopped masquerading as a statesman. Berlusconi remains Berlusconi, ready to sacrifice the constitutional state to his own personal interests, ready to infringe on the freedom of the press to prevent incriminating interviews from being published, ready to trample on citizens' rights to information on judicial investigations. ... For the first time in the history of the republic, a government has encroached upon the area of criminal procedure, twisting the rules and establishing a hierarchy among the crimes to be prosecuted." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Criminalidad / Jurisdicción, » Italia
Todos los textos disponible de » Ezio Mauro

The left-wing liberal daily hails yesterday's meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Polish city of Gdansk as a success. "From this perspective the fact that Tusk has managed to normalise relations with Berlin within the space of six months is a considerable achievement. Yet he has not swept any problems under the carpet. ... It is unrealistic to expect both countries to step out of the shadow of the past and overcome the social stereotypes in the near future. The Polish Prime Minister and the German Chancellor will often face these problems in times to come. But it does not require a breakthrough to deal with these problems; all that is necessary is to maintain normality. It is thanks to this kind of cooperation that Poland's role within the EU can grow." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Alemania, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Bartosz Wielinski

During a meeting yesterday in Prague with the heads of government of the Visegrad countries, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made it clear that the Lisbon process must continue even after the Irish No. The Czechs have so far refused to declare their commitment to the Treaty. The conservative daily Lidove Noviny writes: "He [Sarkozy] did not actually call directly on Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. He chose an indirect approach: 'We will give you time to decide, but we do not want to waste time.' At the same time he warned: 'The Czech Republic calls for EU enlargement in the Balkans. But without Lisbon there will be no further enlargement.' Despite this warning neither Sarkozy nor the other participants received a clear answer [from Topolanek]." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Constitución de la UE, » Francia, » La República Checa, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Tereza Šupová, » Lukáš Dolanský

After recent violence in a suburb of the Northern French town of Marne, the newspaper Le Monde writes that hardly anything has changed since the banlieues were shaken by riots in the autumn of 2005. "The violence that irrupted in Vitry-le-François on the night of June 14 reflected the climate of despair in the banlieues. How could it be otherwise? On the one hand the fabric of French society is being torn asunder by the growing social, educational, ethnic and urban rifts which augment segregation and ghettoisation in the poorest neighbourhoods. On the other hand ... attempts by the state to find a solution to the impasse have led to nothing. The government faces a Sisyphean task with only limited means at its disposal. During his election campaign one year ago, Nicolas Sarkozy seemed to understand what was at stake. He proposed a Marshall Plan for the banlieues. Since then things have been at a standstill, while the hatred in the suburbs has turned to rage." (16/06/2008)

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

On the Internet forum Open Democracy, political scientist and MEP George Schöpflin discusses the suitability of referenda: "In too many cases - European integration among them - referenda function as an instrument not of democracy, but of populism. They can assist democracy only in a few special circumstances: for example, to resolve an issue that is more ethical than political (legalising divorce or abortion, say); or to unblock a political system (offering autonomy or independence to the population of a particular region and thus perhaps helping to avoid civil war or ameliorate division). ... Referenda are profoundly unsuitable ways of addressing complex issues, because they offer the illusion of a simple answer to complexity. ... Referenda reintroduce the tyranny of the majority. ... It is quite plausible that a referendum on, say, recriminalising homosexuality or reintroducing the death penalty would gain a majority ... in several European nation-states. Referenda offer power without responsibility, in that voters can confront elites without having to face the consequences of their action. ... Accountability and responsibility, after all, have to be a two-way process to work at all. Referenda operate only in one direction and, for that reason, are not an appropriate or a democratically sustainable instrument in European matters." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Constitución de la UE, » Movimientos sociales, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » George Schöpflin

Author and philosopher Fernando Savater writes in the Spanish daily El País: "A foreign journalist recently asked me what I thought Europe needed. Without hesitating ... I answered: Erasmus. ... From time to time, every 50 years or so, we need a good dose of the great humanist. ... His greatest dream was that of a united Europe from which the English, German, French and Spanish national names which 'stupidly' separate us ... would disappear. He even goes further and says in his Querela pacis [The Complaint of Peace]: 'The entire world is a fatherland for us all'. What would he think today of a Europe that increasingly seals itself off with its exclusive privileges, which exploits migrants for all they are worth as long as they are useful then denies them rights of any kind, which locks them away without trial or condemns them to a life of uncertainty? What would he think of a Europe which cedes to pressure by the employers' associations and accepts working hours from the times of slavery? The barbarians are making a comeback, and we would do well to remember Erasmus." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Migración, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Fernando Savater

The French daily Le Figaro argues that human rights have lost their significance in international politics: "The politics of human rights was an illusion. Not in itself, but because it was based on the belief that the states and civil societies of the free world could unite to help the still 'fettered' states to freedom. ... In the meantime two Iraq wars, the Kosovo War and Al-Qaida's attack in Manhattan have changed the situation completely. They have revealed the gap between the rapid material development and the longer-lasting political development of a civilisation. One state after the next has abandoned the illusion of a human rights policy for its exact opposite: the illusion of a realpolitik which tends to be nothing more than resignation in the face of the spread of fanaticism." (16/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Ideología, » Europa, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Alain-Gérard Slama

Irish EU Commissioner Charles McCreevy has announced he intends to introduce stricter controls for rating agencies that assess the creditworthiness of businesses. The Irish Times welcomes the initiative: "[Mr McCreevy] accepts that this is necessary given the failure of self-regulation and his evident dissatisfaction with the revised code of conduct recently drawn up by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), a group of market regulators. He has dismissed IOSCO's proposal as being well short of what is required to restore investor and public confidence. Clearly, one of Mr McCreevy's intentions in framing his reforms is to attract new rating agencies into the market. His hope is that new entrants would operate to a different business model, provide much needed competition and restore public and investor confidence in the credit rating system. Greater regulation of rating agencies has been long overdue and Mr McCreevy is taking a bold step in the right direction." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Economía política, » Mercado de finanzas, » Europa

The Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung stresses the importance of the Eastern European countries as transit states in the effort to reduce Europe's energy dependence on Russia, commenting: "Each of the Eastern European transit states has its own approach to this function, but none of them show signs of unswerving political loyalty to the alliance. Each government is focussed on its own interests. What matters is who makes the most attractive offer - whether it comes from Brussels or Moscow. Such pragmatism is understandable, especially since it is also practiced in Western Europe. ... Maintaining good relations with resource-rich Russia is given much higher priority than showing solidarity with one's Eastern European EU neighbours. ... As far as energy policy is concerned, solidarity with Brussels is severely limited, and a matter-of-fact nation state perspective is prevalent. The new members were quick to learn this particular lesson from the representatives of the 'old' EU." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Energía, » Rusia, » Europa

The regional daily La Tribune de Génèva criticises UEFA's censorship practices in the Euro 2008: "In Austria, as in Switzerland, the directors of the public broadcasters are revolting against UEFA's decision to censor the transmission of certain images during the games. For instance, in the game between Austria and Croatia viewers did not see the smoke. UEFA claims it does not want to glorify violence and wants to protect its image. But the opposite is happening. It comes across as an all-powerful world company that can get away with anything because it generates feelings of euphoria and distraction from everyday worries for millions of viewers. ... By dictating the scenography it is imposing its image of the game and society on everyone." (16/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura cotidiana, » Medios de comunicación audiovisuales, » Deportes, » Austria, » Suiza
Todos los textos disponible de » Emmanuel Drevon

Scotland has one of the fastest growing rates of liver cirrhosis in the entire world. The Independent comments on a proposal to raise the age for purchasing alcohol to 21: "Raising the legal age of buying alcohol from off-licences will not bring about a dramatic decline in the type of anti-social behaviour associated with binge drinking. ... The emphasis should be on enforcing the law, not changing it. ... The police already have the power to move [young binge drinkers] on from public spaces and confiscate their alcohol. ... The main flaw to the proposal, however, is that it fails to grasp that Britain's binge-drinking problem, shared elsewhere in northern Europe, is a cultural one. As such, the key to fighting it lies not in fiddling with the statute book, but in fostering a longer-term change in attitudes." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura cotidiana, » Criminalidad / Jurisdicción, » Salud / Medicina, » Gran Bretaña

The left-wing daily Népszava reports that owing to the high fuel prices many farmers in Turkey have swapped their tractors for donkeys: "The growing demand has driven up the price for donkeys. Within the space of a year it has gone up from 26 euros to 180 euros. ... According to the agricultural office of the province of Yozgat in central Anatolia, around 4,400 donkeys were sold last year - twice as many as in the year before. ... Hungarian breeders should also start breeding donkeys as soon as possible, because fuel prices will continue to be astronomic for some time to come. And we all know that donkeys are not high-maintenance animals. They just eat straw, and they love weeds like thistles, so their behaviour does not really depend on the weather." (17/06/2008)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Energía, » Infraestructuras / Tráfico, » Economía agrícola, » Hungría, » Turquía
Todos los textos disponible de » Zsuzsa Regős