"Portugal's José Sócrates has taken over the EU chair for the next half-year, and must complete the job Ms Merkel started", writes the financial daily in an editorial. While keeping a reluctant Poland satisfied with the reform treaty will be difficult, "a new challenge looms for Portugal: not from Warsaw, but from Paris. Nicolas Sarkozy, France's feisty new president, was a useful ally to Ms Merkel in the treaty talks. But now he wishes to reopen more divisive issues, not least for France and Germany: strengthening the economic governance of the eurozone and seeking to define where the future borders of Europe lie. Keeping the peace between Berlin and Paris may be a greater challenge for Mr Sócrates than completing the reform treaty." (03/07/2007)

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

In its editorial, the Portuguese daily hopes that José Sócrates will be able to organise the Africa-EU summit during his tenure as President of Union, despite the thorny problems posed by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. "The majority of the EU countries don't want Mugabe's presence. But the African Union demands that he be invited to the summit on December 8 and 9 in Lisbon. Certain countries have already announced that they will not attend if that is the case. But José Sócrates has repeated multiple times that the summit is a priority for the Portuguese presidency. ... The last summit took place in 2000, the one slated for 2003 never took place, already due to Mugabe. It is out of the question that Robert Mugabe uses the summit to bring his country out of its deserved isolation. If we succeed in preventing this from coming to pass, Portugal will have done a real favour to Europe and Africa." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, portugalski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka UE, » Afryka, » Europa

In two years' time Sweden will assume the rotating EU presidency, but the newspaper is already warning politicians to keep a close eye on developments: "First and foremost, work on the EU treaty must continue. This won't be easy following Poland's threat. Next on the list are negotiations with Ankara about Turkey's EU membership - here it's Sarkozy who's making difficulties. And as if that weren't enough, Portugal plans to hold the first-ever EU-Brazil summit, to take place parallel to a meeting with African leaders. The power struggle and the planning have just begun... The Portuguese face a complex situation and at the moment it remains unclear whether they will have the steady hands necessary to deal with it." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, szwedzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Francja, » Polska, » Portugalia, » Europa

Balázs Pócs examines why after 21 years of EU membership Portugal is still perceived as Europe's poorhouse: "Why hasn't Portugal managed to achieve what Spain and Ireland, who joined later, have accomplished? According to Teixeira dos Santos, Portugal's minister of finance, the problem is that Portugal failed to push through tough reforms in the late 1990s, before the conversion to the euro. "At the time, the Portuguese were under the illusion that the country was well on its way to prosperity. Despite a growing budget deficit, governments neglected to introduce reforms for the sake of maintaining their popularity. Prime Minister José Sócrates is now determined to get the Portuguese economy back on track... This is urgently needed, because the Portuguese are gradually losing their self-confidence. And that's hardly surprising: in the latest ranking of EU countries according to per capita gross domestic product, Portugal was overtaken by two new EU members, the Czech Republic and Slovenia." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, węgierski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Czechy, » Słowenia, » Portugalia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Balázs Pócs

"The national myth" of Swiss neutrality "is coming back into fashion", write the journalists Daniél Miéville and Jean-Jacques Roth. Antoine Fleury views neutrality as a national symbol. "The Swiss are attached to neutrality a little like the English are to the Queen. What's the point? Everything and nothing. Imagine an England and a Commonwealth without the Queen. In the eyes of others, imagine a Switzerland that isn't neutral. In fact, we must not speak too much about neutrality because the concept doesn't work anymore. It's a legacy, a heritage. 15 years ago, I thought that it would be better to speak of an international role. But, to my great surprise, for the last several years everyone has started to speak about neutrality again." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Historia, » Szwajcaria
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jean-Jacques Roth, » Daniél Miéville, » Antoine Fleury

As US Independence Day approaches on July 4, Steve Coronella an American writer living in Dublin asks "why doesn't Europe get patriotism? ... America's Independence Day celebrations are indeed different. They lack the sense of insularity and exclusion that tinges similar festivities in Europe. ... For this fundamental reason, Europeans just don't get US-style patriotism, which is based on an extraordinary set of foundation documents as well as a genuine national identity shared by all citizens, no matter where else they might call home. Despite the European Union's clumsy efforts at producing its own defining raison d'être through a ponderous constitution and unwieldy institutions, Europe will never realise a similar ambition. Europeans will always consider themselves Italian, French, or indeed Irish, first and foremost." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Integracja, » Ruchy społeczne, » Europa, » USA
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Steve Coronella

Seven Spanish tourists were killed and five others wounded in an attack in the Mareb region of Yemen Monday, July 2nd. The daily considers the attacks proof of Al-Qaeda's determination "to drown in blood one of the economic pillars and a path out of isolation for Muslim countries, tourism. ... To travel in far away countries hasn't been a Spanish habit until recently. As a result, our consciousness of the risks and the precautions involved in trips to dangerous countries - Yemen has faced an armed insurrection which has cost the lives of 4000 people these last three years - ..., remains less than that of citizens of other countries. The region where the ruins which the assassinated tourists were visiting are found is categorized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs as being at risk, and yet many travel agencies include this site on their tours." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Hiszpania, » Bliski i Środkowy Wschód

According to reports on American television, last weekend there was also the danger of a terrorist attack on the airport in Prague. Adam Černý expresses the view that the European Union is in the midst of a new "world war" and calls for more resoluteness in the battle against terrorism: "There is no simple approach to dealing with these new threats. Perhaps travellers at airports now realise that the security measures are not exaggerated. But do the European states see how vital it is that they work together, for instance by signing a new treaty facilitating the extradition of suspects or captured criminals? The dispute about the European arrest warrant has been going on forever now. Europeans currently enjoy the freedom to travel wherever they want but they're not in a position to jointly protect this freedom." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Czechy, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Adam Černý

Columnist Polly Toynbee writes that the floods in northern England would have received more media coverage if they had affected the more prosperous south. "it will take disasters happening in rich cities before the reality of climate change forces opinion-makers to put it at the top of the world's agenda. Hollywood films about New York under water are scary entertainment: when the real thing happens in black New Orleans, nothing changes. ... Internationally, climate change will hit the poorest hardest, from Bangladesh and the Pacific atolls to the Sahara, while the west has the money to protect itself. But New Orleans showed how within the rich countries, the way it strikes will emphasise all the existing social inequalities." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Środowisko, » Wielka Brytania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Polly Toynbee

The Polish public health system has been hit by a wave of protests and strikes over the past few weeks. Doctors and nurses are demanding higher salaries and the health minister is already talking about raising taxes. Elzbieta Cichocka comments on a potential approach to restructuring the health sector: "Privatisation and dissection - the calls for this approach are growing louder among the public. Many private enterprises want to gain access to guaranteed public funding. But would a system consisting of competing private companies really be cheaper? They too would have to employ experts, fix price lists and watch out for hospital fraud. They too would have to invest money in marketing. Who else is to take charge of all this? In the US, one of every four dollars spent by health companies goes into administration costs - that would be 10 billion zloty in Poland, compared to the current 450 million which we're all so busy complaining about." (02/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Zdrowie, » Polska
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Elzbieta Cichocka

Michael Moravec is appalled that to achieve his goal of freeing France of its national debt by 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy is prepared to incur more debts than the EU Stability Pact permits. "If the other 26 countries and the Commission give him permission to do this we may as well bury the Stability Pact, because this would deprive the Union of all arguments in favour of even a modicum of budgetary discipline... The chasm opening up in the EU between Germany and France is immense and easily exceeds all ideological boundaries: the conservative Sarkozy is in favour of more debt, against the Stability Pact, in favour of intervening to adjust euro exchange rates and facilitate exports and in favour of the political fixing of interest rates. Meanwhile Peer Steinbrück, Germany's Minister of Finance and a trade unionist and Social Democrat, supports the Stability Pact and wants a completely independent ECB. The countries of the EU are gradually losing all the things they once had in common." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Polityka finansowa, » Podatki, » Francja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Michael Moravec

Columnist Pietro Citati remembers that during his childhood teachers weren't very rich. Their instruction, on the other hand, was irreproachable, thanks to an education system whose emphasis on a solid foundation in the humanities engaged the students. He regrets the fact that "fifty years ago they were respected for their role, and they lived in a decent manner. School reform, nepotism and miserable salaries have produced an under-class today, a sort of under-proletariat who have just enough money to feed and clothe themselves, and definitely not enough to buy books. The future of western civilisation depends on specialisation, learned in school, and for this reason teachers must become an elite once again." (03/07/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, La Repubblica)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka kulturalna, » Włochy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Pietro Citati

The daily, in its editorial, expresses concern for the proliferation of summer festivals in France. "This growth of festivals is not without risks. First, that of saturation. On the French Riviera, for example, music is everywhere during July. In the west, the historic festivals Francofolies in La Rochelle and the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix, are opening up Central Brittany and must confront the Festival des Terre-Neuvas, founded in the village of Bobital. In Avignon, the 'off' [an alternative, independent festival] is organising more than 700 shows. As the pool of paying spectators is by definition limited, financial dangers weigh on established festivals. The growth of international star power adds to this pressure. The concentration of public tastes and the ground to make up due to the drop in CD sales encourages artists to always ask for more. ... The first victims are the poorly promoted little artists and the newcomers." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Styl życia, » Polityka kulturalna, » Francja

In a lengthy article, film director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck ("The Lives of Others") explains why scientology follower Tom Cruise should be cast in the role of anti-Hitler plotter Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg's son spoke out against Cruise's participation in Bryan Singer's new film "Valkyrie" and the German Ministry of Defence also raised objections to parts of the film being shot in the Bendlerblock in Berlin. "Perhaps we must simply recognise that none of us are gods; neither Stauffenberg nor Tom Cruise nor L. Ron Hubbard nor any of us. Germany can't heal the world's ills, and nor can America. In reality each can only heal himself, and life remains a quest for inner truth. Stauffenberg symbolises that quest. I would ask that the state provide a safe place for this quest. But as far as Tom Cruise and Stauffenberg are concerned, the German state is once again presenting itself as having all the answers." (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » Historia, » Niemcy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Carol I von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the first King of Romania, is still revered today. For this reason new monuments are to be erected in his honour. In 1948 the communist leadership had a statue of Carol I on horseback removed from central Bucharest. "Last year, the Minister of Culture announced that the monument, which is the subject of numerous myths, was buried somewhere in the country and ordered a search using metal detectors. The search was unproductive and the Minster decided to have a new statue built... Now the city of Bucharest has also commissioned a similar new monument. The commission for the protection of historical building's only requirement so far is that the two monuments stand at different locations. But does the capital, which already has a plethora of ugly statues, really need another statue of Carol I on horseback?" the newspaper asks, and has organised an online poll on the issue. (03/07/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, rumuński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Architektura / Miasta, » Historia, » Rumunia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Adrian Robert Balan