Microbiologist and science journalist Alexander S. Kekulé believes the upcoming G8 summit could do the climate more harm than good: "The G8 summit has the potential to cause lasting damage to climate protection measures. There are few international bodies in which the US has as much say as in this club of the world's most powerful industrialised nations. Moreover, this time China and India - both nations that are disinclined to let themselves be dictated to in matters pertaining to the climate - are joining the party... Instead of trying to come up with weak compromises politicians should concentrate on the main problem: extracting energy from oil, gas and coal is destroying the basis of our existence, and the supplies will soon run out anyway. To solve this huge problem we need entirely new scientific concepts and economic structures. No one, not even Germany or the EU, has proposed a workable solution so far." (30/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka UE, » Środowisko, » Energia, » Europa, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Alexander S. Kekulé

The columnist Jacques Pilet doesn't believe that Europeans and Americans can collaborate efficiently in the fight against global warming. "All the skill and ingenuity of presiding Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be enough: it will end up as one more failure. The Bush administration has let it be known that it will oppose further commitment of the rich country club to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The first reason for this is political. Bush and his followers cannot bear to see Europeans define the agenda of world priorities. A slap in Merkel's face is a warning. Moreover, relations between the Unites States and China are increasingly tense. Washington cannot bear the idea, whether right or wrong, that self discipline with energy can weaken American industry in relation to Asian competition. The second reason is economic. When it comes to renewable energy sources, Europe is technologically ahead of America. ... This explains why Bush has no desire to accelerate the movement." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka UE, » Środowisko, » Europa, » Ameryka Północna
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jacques Pilet

Just a few days before the G8 Summit is due to begin, Europe and the US are still divided on the issue of global warming, Björn Sundell writes. "This isn't the way things usually happen at this level. Usually the partners reach some kind of agreement in advance - weeks before the summit actually takes place. The US and Germany will make a last-ditch attempt to overcome their differences when Angela Merkel meets George W. Bush at dinner. But it's unlikely the great rift can be bridged in the last moment. The world's major industrial powers are simply too divided on the issue of a global approach to solving the climate problem." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, szwedzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka UE, » Środowisko, » Energia, » Niemcy, » Europa, » USA, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Björn Sundell

"Three months ago everyone was predicting that the G8's main topic would be poverty", recalls the essayist Jacques Attali. "Today, the only theme that counts is the refusal of the United States to set precise objectives for the reduction of greenhouse gas, against the will of the seven other members; this means that we can expect the summit to fail on one very serious matter: the Kyoto protocol will expire in 2012 without either the United States, China or India being prepared to be part of its prorogation. Then, several hours away from the summit, another subject will impose itself: for a long time it was the Soviet Union followed by Afghanistan and then Iraq. Next week it will most likely be Iran. Grand statements will be made and, once again, the question of what the point of the G8 is will be posed. ... Once again it will be concluded that in order for a real reform of worldwide governance to work, it would be necessary to merge the G8 with the United Nations Security Council. Then, like every year, there will be a change of subject." (31/05/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, L'Express)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Środowisko, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jacques Attali

The Spanish writer Javier Cercas ponders the subject of 'historical revisionism'. "Facts are facts and that's that. Thus the expression 'historical memory' is consequently absurd. It implies an oxymoron, because, as has been underlined Santos Julia, memory is personal and inevitably subjective, whereas history is collective and should be aim for objectivity. I am not talking about the fact that the work of historians unearths unknown factors of the past, adding to and modifying history. What I am saying is that the present can force us to change the way we perceive the past. ... It is therefore rather disconcerting for those who are interested in history to say that 'revisionist' is the worst epithet you could possibly stick on a professional historian. Because the first task a historian is faced with is precisely to revise history by questioning commonly accepted certitudes, in order to propose an interpretation of the past that coincides with the knowledge or experience of the present." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Historia, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Javier Cercas

According to Joschka Fischer, former German foreign minister and current visiting professor at Princeton University, "this flagging Europe has only two options: hang on or be left behind." In an article written for Project Syndicate and reprinted by the Standard, Fischer urges the EU member states to at least preserve Part 1 of the original draft of the European constitution and the double majority voting system. "To rewrite this part, thus allowing the very substance to be watered down would be a historical failure and a huge step backwards for the future of Europe. It would be preferable to continue waiting. Much is at stake for Europe in the coming weeks. If the essential substance of the constitutional treaty is preserved, Europe will make headway as a global political player. Only then will transatlanticism have a future... However, if this attempt fails or if we end up with a weak and useless compromise, Europe's decline will accelerate and transatlantic relations will enter troubled waters." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Konstytucja UE, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Joschka Fischer

The French lawyer Alain Weber, a member of League of Human Rights' commission for freedom and information technology (LDH), denounces the American search engine Google's acquisition of the internet advertising group DoubleClick. "Thus Google can access [the personal data] of 1.1billion people in the world. Thus Google will accompany (or stalk ?) internet explorers throughout their navigation on the net. But what is more intimate than a stroll, a quest, than our choices, our fields of interest ? What do we owe and how are we indebted to a commercial company who thinks it is entitled to collect, stock and exploit these intimate treasures ? ... Internet users need to stop trusting Google and boycott Google if this project to take over DoubleClick takes off. Otherwise our civil liberties, our secrets, our anonymity and our freedom of choice will be flouted and we will become mere flies in the face of Google, a giant spider reigning over its Web." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media internetowe, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Alain Weber

The progressive daily considers that Dutch politicians have "learnt nothing from the 2005 debacle", when the Dutch rejected the European Constitution in a referendum. "'If the population says 'no' to a European treaty through a referendum again, the Netherlands will find itself outside of the EU', warned Frans Timmermans, Secretary of State for European Affairs ... . This recalls the way the previous government tried to intimidate its electorate in 2005. ... The Dutch government's implication in the creation of a simplified treaty, in which EU borders will be clearly fixed, is defendable in every respect. A new referendum should thus be considered a unique opportunity to at last engage in the Dutch population's debate on the relationship between the Netherlands and Europe. Such a debate is the best way to restore trust between politicians and sceptical voters." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niderlandzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Konstytucja UE, » Holandia, » Europa

The Latvian parliament has elected Valdis Zatlers as the country's new president today. Before the decision was announced, Romans Melniks vented his frustration about the procedure for selecting the presidential candidates. "The battle to become a candidate is a farce - the key political decisions are made within a small circle rather than by the people. As a result, the presidential office is more a party institution than a state institution, because it's the governing parties who decide on a candidate in advance and they tend to look for someone who will represent their own interests... The nation wants to see a moral leader in this office - in particular after the current president [Vaira vike-Freiberga] - while the parties are more interested in stabilising their power." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, łotewski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Łotwa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Romans Melniks

The daily considers that the general strike organised in Portugal last Wednesday, May 30th, was a trial run before the struggles to follow against too much flexibility in the world of work. "Predictably, the government has tried to diminish the significance of the day's campaigning against its economic and social policy [notably cuts in public spending and freezing salaries] ... . This general strike was not only launched to inhibit the State's action. It was also a question of uniting forces for head-on opposition to 'flexi-security'. The 7,000 meetings held all over the country were able to alert hundreds and thousands of workers and employees to the threat that is looming: the facilitated sacking of individuals without a social State to guarantee a certain security in exchange, with dignified economic aid for the unemployed. In the social conditions of today's Portugal, this could lead to disaster." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, portugalski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Ruchy społeczne, » Portugalia

At the beginning of this week Sweden's Central Office for Health and Social Affairs gave permission for three sets of parents with seriously ill children to "design" their next babies through egg-cell selection so that they can use cells donated by their healthy offspring to combat the illnesses of their sick siblings. The decision is highly controversial. Hanne Kjöller denies that such a procedure is against the laws of nature. "Those who use the nature argument against a new technology are basically calling all old technologies into question at the same time. There's nothing to be said against a debate about technology and... the principles of human dignity. But this debate must be separated from the non-rational, anti-technology and religiously-motivated debate that is only relevant for those who share such beliefs. It must be possible to raise questions of ethics without involving the heavenly sphere." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, szwedzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Religia, » Zdrowie / Medycyna, » Światopogląd, » Szwecja

The main websites of Estonia were recently the target of regular attacks that have perturbed the functioning of the country. Small Russian groups are suspected of being the authors of these attacks. Interviewed by Silvia Roman, the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik IIves explains that his country "is facing a new kind of attack that may not use missiles, but are equally aimed against the country. The term 'war' needs to be redefined, because it was created before computers. We have been particularly affected because of the country's advanced technological development. We can compare this with what happened in Spain with the 1936 bombings. Spain was a training terrain for what followed in the 1940s. ... This cyber-attack was intended to test solidarity among EU countries. It must not be forgotten that in the upper echelons of Russian society many people have not appreciated EU enlargement and the accession of former communist countries." (31/05/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, El Mundo)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Media internetowe, » Estonia, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Toomas Hendrik Ilves, » Silvia Roman

Filippo Ceccareli considers that the Italian left, soon to be regrouped into a 'Democratic Party' is suffering from a lack of natural leaders. "Many within the Democratic Party [which will be officially launched on October 16th, 2007], are strutting about and bickering. They can be heard evoking the necessity of a real leader to conceal the turmoil, to escape the crisis of legitimacy that the left is confronted with. The centre right, by contrast, does have a leader, even if Berlusconi is more a king, a chief, an idol, someone who disrupted politics by introducing modernity. ... For those at the head of the centre left, the desire to become a leader is an ailment that creates disorder and insecurity." (31/05/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, La Repubblica)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Włochy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Filippo Ceccarelli

Ingeborg Ruthe enthuses about the new exhibition of masterpieces of 19th century French painting from New York's Metropolitan Museum, which opens tomorrow in Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery). "French 19th century art, which the Americans have so passionately and discerningly collected, is testimony to a golden age in painting. The period combined the traditional and the modern, attracted huge audiences to art galleries and fuelled art criticism and the art market. The dialogue-like composition of the exhibition serves to illustrate this process. Everything is interconnected: classicism and romanticism, romanticism and realism, realism and impressionism. This all leads up to the age of radical modernism. The century that produced such great paintings began in the tradition of the old masters, but at its end there were no longer any compulsory styles." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Wystawy / Muzea, » Niemcy, » Francja, » USA
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Ingeborg Ruthe

Milena Zwetkowa uses the example of a modern version of the Russian classic 'War and Peace' to vent her frustration about the 21st century reader. This kind of reader, she points out, is mobile and unattached to a specific region or home and therefore does not possess a private collection of books. These modern readers want fast-food books like this 'light' version of Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'. "All the 'difficult' bits have been removed from the novel... In this light version Andrei Bolkonski and Petya Rostov stay alive and Natasha marries the boring Pierre Bezukhov. We can be sure that this desecration of a classic has a purpose - to attract those who were deterred by the sheer length and the dark ending of the novel; those who like alternative reading and reject all kinds of instruction or obligation. This is a naked condemnation of great style. It is thus reserved for either older readers who have deservedly retired from active life or unemployed book and literature enthusiasts." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, bułgarski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Literatura, » Bułgaria
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Milena Zwetkowa

The historian and philosopher Jonathan Rée investigates the literary force of essay-writing novelists. "Essays tend to be classier, more learned and more demanding - there is no essayistic equivalent of the 'popular novel' - and even when written in a perfectly casual style, they are likely to be strewn with half-concealed quotations or allusions to flatter or perhaps annoy the smarter class of reader. As exercises in hesitation, exploration and experimental self-multiplication, they are like novels, only more so. You might even say that the novel aspires to the condition of the essay, and there is certainly no shortage of novelists who have aspired to be essayists too. Think of Eliot or Henry James, Woolf, Forster or Orwell, or Mann, Sartre, De Beauvoir, Camus.... And as four recently published books [by Kundera, Coetzee, Sontag and Vargas Llosa] ... demonstrate, the essay-writing novelist is still a literary force to be reckoned with." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Literatura, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jonathan Rée

"The popular Teletubbies are being screened for homosexuality. In order to avoid raising suspicion of corruption the Prime Minister doesn't have a personal bank account. An MEP and his son, the Minister of Education, are calling Darwin's theories into question with the aid of EU funding. And the promotion of homosexuality is to be forbidden in schools." This is how Martin Ehl sums up the latest headlines in Poland, which are raising eyebrows abroad and which "aren't exactly flattering", as he puts it. "The leading politicians of the governing conservative-nationalist coalition are often in conflict with current opinion in Europe and also with certain fundamental European norms... The majority of Poles fear that the above mentioned reports will make them the subject of ridicule. On the other hand they really take the government's policies seriously. Only around 30 % thought the question of the sexual orientation of the Teletubbies was a joke." (31/05/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Polska
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Martin Ehl