"The fear whipped up by the populist press has brought us to this", complains the daily. "After screaming for years that we are being 'swamped' by immigrants from Eastern Europe, a weakened Government is bowing to their will. It is worth restating that the reason we attract so many immigrants is that our economy is growing. It is a pity the Government shows so little understanding of this. ... Mr Reid plans on keeping down the numbers of low-skilled workers. This is pure prejudice. The majority of immigrant workers do the jobs that Native Britons turn down. ... Without such unskilled workers the economy would be in serious difficulties.... The most likely outcome is that those who come will end up working in the black economy, where they will be at risk of exploitation and pay no tax. The government is stoking hysteria on immigration, weakening our economy and needlessly insulting our newest European neighbours." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rozszerzenie UE, » Migracja, » Wielka Brytania, » Rumunia, » Bułgaria

"By any yardstick, the Government's decision not to allow free access to the Irish labour market for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria after they join the EU goes against the spirit of the Euro club", comments the daily. "Arguably, however, the Republic had little choice since Britain declared it would restrict their entry. As the only other English-speaking state in the EU, Ireland would trigger a flood of migration through an open door policy. ... Undoubtedly, the economy gained massively from the influx of foreign workers [after the 2004 EU accession of ten states] who now make up 10% of the Irish workforce. Having lowered the portcullis, Government must now deliver on its pledge to address the integration needs of migrant workers and their dependents. With 250,000 foreign workers, Ireland has a bounden duty to address their social, welfare, and educational needs." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rozszerzenie UE, » Migracja, » Irlandia, » Rumunia, » Bułgaria

The Polish government has announced that it will open its doors to workers from Romania and Bulgaria at the beginning of next year. Witold Gadomski welcomes the idea: "We will be passing on the good things that we have received from Europe to countries less well-off than we are. The influx of foreign workers will benefit our economy. Thousands of Poles, many of them skilled and specialist workers, are now working in England and Ireland and enriching these countries. In a few months' time the Polish economy will benefit from the influx of foreign workers. Naturally, there will be a certain amount of tension and conflict. Not everybody in London is happy about the wave of Polish workers entering the economy. But I am confident that we will adapt quickly to the new situation, see its advantages and give the new arrivals a warm welcome." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rozszerzenie UE, » Migracja, » Polska, » Rumunia, » Bułgaria
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Witold Gadomski

Klaus Brill argues that restricting free movement of workers within Europe won't have much of an impact. "However, the situation is by no means the same everywhere, and this also applies to the countries of origin. For example, the number of Czechs leaving their home country has remained relatively small. Bavaria's minister for economic affairs, Erwin Huber, recently admitted that fears of an invasion of the Upper Palatinate had been 'greatly exaggerated'. In contrast, 170,000 Slovaks have left their country since 2004. 36,000 went to England, 15,000 to Ireland, but the majority, 75,000, came to the Czech Republic. Moreover, there are already around two million Romanians working in the 25 EU member states, and according to the government in Budapest's statistics, 1.3 million of them are legally employed.... These figures prove that migration within Europe is an unstoppable historical process driven by the disparities between East and West... Even now there are people from Belarus, Ukraine and even Vietnam living (often illegally) in the Czech Republic, many of whom are university graduates. In view of the poverty of their situation in their home countries, Europe's higher salaries act like a magnet. Rules and regulations won't do much to change this." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rozszerzenie UE, » Migracja, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Klaus Brill

The philosophy professor Abdennour Bidar addresses his colleague Robert Redeker, who has received death threats after publishing a commentary in which he notably called the Prophet Mohammed 'master of hatred'. "Instead of this crazy image of the Prophet, I would have rather you founded your image of Islam on the observation of individuals from Muslim culture who you no doubt used to encounter in your everyday life before your tragedy and who today populate the French community ... Do these Muslims who we live with on an everyday basis, most of whom are as secular as us and just as much citizens and consumers, do they really resemble this 'Mohammed' who you imagine to be like some pulp fiction barbarian? ... I am always taken aback by the power of autosuggestion among all those who believe that they can see the Prophet's armies behind every Arab, thus turning Islamic extremism into the 'natural' activity of Muslims and making its practice as generalised as it is surreptitious!" (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Religia, » Filozofia, » Światopogląd, » Francja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Abdennour Bidar

"There has been a change of tendency in Europe's left wing, the wind of inventiveness that swept from North to South during the 1990s having drastically changed direction", reveals the French historian and sociologist Marc Lazar, professor at the Paris Institute of Political Science. According to him, despite their current weakness, the left of Northern Europe will leave a deep mark behind. "The Swedish left, with 35.2% of votes, recorded its worst results since 1920. In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair is breaking records of unpopularity. In the South of Europe the left is on the contrary going through a stimulating phase ... .To tell the truth, this contrast between the drifting left in Sweden and Britain on one hand and the vitality of the left in the south on the other is nothing new. ... . In power during the 1970s, [The leftwing parties in the South] knew how to make reforms, but remained fragile and vulnerable to the right. In the North, the political choices made by leftwing parties are so impressive that the opposition would able to dismantle them”. (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, włoski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Marc Lazar

The Hungarian opposition leader Viktor Orban has proposed a referendum on the government's reform programme and austerity measures. According to commentator Károly Lencsés this is all part of a strategy to destabilise the government: "With cunningly formulated questions, the opposition is trying to raise doubts about the government's entire programme. If the referendum is allowed to take place in this form, the regulations regarding government laid down in the constitution will lose their meaing." Lencsés cites István Lövétei, an expert on constitutional law, who criticises the opposition's initiative "because it asks citizens political questions which require specialised knowledge of politics. The questions can therefore only be formulated in an extremely oversimplified manner and answered with either a 'yes' or 'no'... According to Lövétei this type of question is not permitted in referendums in other European countries. Even in Switzerland, the country where referendums are held most frequently, citizens only decide on matters that have a direct and long-term impact on the future of the country – and only when there is a clear answer, for example in matters like EU membership or opening the borders to immigrants." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, węgierski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Węgry
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Károly Lencsés

Jan Machacek writes that the television images of the riots in Budapest on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution have thrown a bad light on Central Europe as a whole. "We Eastern Europeans are a strange folk. First we had the likes of Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, now we have nationalists, populists and liars, violence and 'street votes' reminiscent of those in Mexico or Argentina. It's easy to forget that the same kind of thing happened in Paris a year ago. We Czechs shouldn't allow ourselves to think this new wave of disrespect doesn't affect us. Nor should we be angry with the Hungarians. They have earned our respect and admiration for their actions in 1956. We have no right to make fun of them. If there are no violent demonstrations here in the Czech Republic it's because we have a different temperament and not because we have a superior political culture. Hungarians like spicy goulash while we prefer bland dumplings. But does this make our politicians any less deceitful or corrupt than those in Budapest?" (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Demografia, » Węgry, » Europa Środkowa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jan Machacek

The organisation of a debate this Wednesday, October 25th, on the peace process engaged by Madrid and the Basque separatists is provoking a lot of criticism in Spain. Mikel Buesa, president of the civil group of resistance to terrorism 'Foro Ermua', condemns this initiative in an interview conducted by Emanuelle Steels. "This is a profoundly undemocratic debate. The resolution due to be voted envisages the recognition of the ETA [Basque separatist organisation] as a legitimate interlocutor. If the European Parliament approves, the entire EU will find itself implicated in the conflict. This is a Spanish debate that we cannot allow to spread out to the rest of the Member States. If the terrorists had given up their weapons, circumstances would be quite different." (25/10/2006)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, Le Soir)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Polityka UE, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Hiszpania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Mikel Buesa

The Spanish journalist Antonio Papell approves of the fact that the European Parliament will debate the peace process in Spain this Wednesday, October 25th. "Europe is not some foreign sphere within which Spain leads a foreign policy, a specific space that it belongs to and in which it develops its own interior process. In other words, it is not about an external agent showing us solidarity, but the quasi-federal structure that we are a part of. ... The Spanish representation may well offer Eurodeputies a disappointing display of disunion, unless common sense manages to take over. One can of course understand the critical distance that the opposition has adopted towards the government and its management of the peace process, but the activism aimed to torpedo the process is proving incomprehensible ... ". (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Polityka UE, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Hiszpania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Antonio Papell

Sweden's new conservative government led by Frederik Reinfeldt is now complete. Following the resignations of two ministers within the first days of the government taking office, Sten Tolgfors has now been appointed as Minister of Commerce and Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth has been appointed as Minister for Culture. Both are experienced politicians within their respective fields, and precisely this leads the newspaper to question what led Mr. Reinfeldt to appoint outsiders in the first place. "Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth has long been involved in cultural issues. She's well acquainted with the world of culture and this means people won't regard her with the same amount of suspicion and aggression which her predecessor Stegö Chilò faced. But if it was Reinfeldt's goal to change the substance of Sweden's cultural policy then it's difficult to see what his first appointee and his second appointee have in common." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, szwedzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Szwecja

In the aim of reducing the considerable deficit in the Italian budget, the Prodi government is planning the reform of complementary retirements in 2007. After an agreement struck on October 23rd between trade unions and employers, Italian workers will be given the possibility of transferring their pension dues to a public organism. The Italian economist Michel Salvati considers that the reform lacks clarity. "The easiest part of the task consists of clearing away incongruities from the finance law. What is most difficult is getting a clear idea in discussions with unions of the government's position on pensions and public employment ... What we need in order to change political judgement on this finance law and this government is an act of courage: at least a document specifying the objectives that this 'concerting' government intends to pursue". (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, włoski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka finansowa, » Podatki, » Włochy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Michele Salvati

"Things aren't looking too good in the world as far as freedom of speech is concerned, and we're not just talking about repressive states like North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea, where freedom of speech is still openly suppressed," writes Mirek Toda, commenting on the latest Press Freedom Ranking published by the international organisation Reporters without Borders. "From one day to the next, Russia, where journalist Anna Politovskaya was recently murdered, was put on par with the dictatorship in Belarus. However, the situation has also declined in certain EU countries where you normally wouldn't expect this to happen. Poland is the most prominent example. According to the organisation, censorship has experienced a revival with the Kaczynski brothers' rise to power. Journalists who criticise Catholicism quickly fall out of favour, as do those who make fun of leading politicians, as Germany's 'tageszeitung' recently discovered after it published a satirical piece on President Lech Kaczynski." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, słowacki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media audiowizualne, » Media drukowane, » Media internetowe, » Polityka medialna, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Mirek Toda

Poland ranked lowest of all the EU countries in the latest world press freedom ranking published by Reporters without Borders. It ranked 58th in the international comparison. Among other things, the organisation criticises the fact that Jerzy Urban, publisher of the satirical weekly "Nie", was fined by a court in March 2006 for describing the ailing Pope John Paul II as a "living corpse." With reference to this particular case Krystyna Mokrosinska, President of the Polish Journalists' Association SDP, describes the criticism of Reporters without Borders as exaggerated. "This is a subjective evaluation by people who have a different, more liberal attitude towards the right to freedom of speech of the media. This liberal attitude fails to take into account the fact that freedom is restricted by the freedom of others... I believe that people shouldn't interfere in the domestic affairs of a country and this is exactly what Reporters without Borders is doing. I have great respect for this organisation and agree with them on many things. But I think that each country is entitled to its own approach and its own culture." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media audiowizualne, » Media drukowane, » Media internetowe, » Polityka medialna, » Polska

"Every year the European Court of Auditors (ECA), after lengthy scrutiny of the European Union budget, announces that it is unable to sign off the accounts", notes the daily. "And every year this sparks angry accusations of institutional fraud, profligacy and incompetence in Brussels. There are calls by member states, usually led by Britain, for the European Commission to tighten its procedures, update its software and institute the kind of accounting system that will clearly state assets and liabilities. ... The Commission, anticipating criticism, has already prepared its response. Its basic premise is that the system is inherently unfair. In a community of 25 nations, with varying accounting systems, levels of honesty and degrees of transparency, it is exceptionally difficult to account accurately for all items of spending." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Polityka finansowa, » Podatki, » Europa

Brigitte Preissler looks enviously to Barcelona's young and innovative literature biennial "Kosmopolis" and asks: "When does Berlin take such an interdisciplinary approach in its reflections on literature?" She reports that "the festival attracted the kind of young, good-looking and trendy clientele you only see at Popkomm in Germany. This kind of people are the trainees at literature festivals in Germany." She points out that the director of the festival Juan Insua is aiming "for a 'free discourse without any restrictions'. Insua, who was born in Argentina, doesn't regard books as outdated, but he wants to combine traditional text formats with modern ones. This broader concept of literature is apparently shared by many in Barcelona's literary circles. A large and communicative audience listened with great interest to physicist and computer-game designer Chris Crawford talk about the narrative potential of computer games. Crawford encouraged his audience to learn about maths and programming languages, pointing out that every good artist must also learn to use certain repugnant techniques." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Literatura, » Media internetowe, » Hiszpania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Brigitte Preissler

The weekly denounces a "linguistic disaster" that characterises the French-speaking community in Belgium. "How can people talk about redressing Wallonia, about technopoles and state of the art technology when most of the population only speaks one language? ... In an increasingly multi-lingual world, 57% of Walloons only speak French, according to a recent study carried out by Victor Ginsburgh (ULB/UCL) and Shlomo Weber (UCL) entitled 'The language dynamic in Belgium'. This is considerably more than the monolingual average among Europeans (44%), according to the 2006 Eurobarometre. Another example: the proportion of Walloons likely to express themselves in English does not exceed 16%. But four out of ten people from Brussels and five out of ten people from the Flanders region are able to. ... Ginsburgh and Weber are convinced that, 'on an international level, Walloons will remain seriously isolated'." (25/10/2006)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Polityka kulturalna, » Integracja, » Belgia