"The modest objectives of the Kyoto protocol are not enough to reverse the rising tendency of greenhouse gas emissions, especially as they are not followed by the most pollutant countries who have not signed the treaty", regrets the Spanish daily. What we need is for "the G8 countries and developing countries with high levels of gas emissions to be summoned for agreements to be made alongside the UN. The latter have hitherto not been obliged to commit to the reduction of emissions, because climate imbalances are produced by the richer countries, but the situation is rapidly changing because of their economic development. ... If, however, we want our representatives to engage in ambitious objectives, people also need to change their attitudes and stop demanding abundant, sure and cheap energy, regardless of where it comes from so long as the industries that produce it are not too close to where they live." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Środowisko, » Cały świat

Ten years after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol on climate protection, its shortcomings are becoming clear, writes Zbyněk Petráček. "After ten years it's become clear that it's easier to predict climate changes than to predict the development of the economy. Who would have thought back in 1997 that China would become the world's third-largest economy? That it would supplant Germany as the world's largest exporter? That it would surpass the US as the world's worst polluter? It's developing so quickly that not even the latest G8 in June this year foresaw the latter... Up to now the attitude in Europe has been: those who question the Kyoto Protocol are committing a sin against mother Earth. Now we have to ask ourselves: do we have a formula for getting China, as the world's greatest polluter, to adhere to Kyoto?" (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Środowisko, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Zbyněk Petráček

The daily notes that Irelands Environment Protection Agency (EPA) found that transport emissions in Ireland have grown at four times the expected level, while emissions from electricity generation are also rising. "Our Kyoto Protocol commitments were exceeded by 12 per cent ... If joined-up, international action is not taken, flooding, intense storms and desertification will cause severe loss of life, economic disruption and the massive movement of populations. There will be no escaping some of the consequences. We need to plan for such eventualities. Cutting carbon emissions by 3 per cent a year. Better coastal defences are required. Building on flood plains should be banned. Desalinisation plants fuelled by wave, sea or wind-power could provide fresh water for a drier East coast. Tough energy-conservation legislation should be introduced. It will not be easy but, at this stage, our children will otherwise inhabit a radically changed world." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Środowisko, » Irlandia

François Gemenne, a researcher at the Université de Liège, answers the questions of Laure Noualhat and explains how the creation of a status for environmental refugees is evolving on an international level. "A resolution was voted last year in Belgium's Senate, requesting the Belgian delegation in the United Nations to urge for international recognition of an environmental refugee status and similar resolutions have been registered in the European Parliament and the European Council. In Australia, a legislative bill has been introduced by the green party, calling for a new category of visa ... . Finally, there is embryonic reflection on the question of a possible revision of the Geneva Convention within the United Nations refugee agency's high commissioner's executive committee. But is this subject is presented at the drawing board now, many fear that the asylum regime will actually be more restrained than enlarged." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Środowisko, » Europa, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » François Gemenne, » Laure Noualhat

Björn-Olav Dozo and François Provenzano, researchers at the Université de Liège, question the idea of a European digital library to counter Google's initiative. "Is the model of a 'European digital library' [supported by France], which is brandishing the argument of non-subservience to economic liabilities, really as transparent as it claims? By leaning on an essentialist vision of European culture, is it not running the risk of reproducing a cultural hierarchy just as arbitrary as Goolge's algorithm? ... What is meant by the term 'European Culture' and who can legitimately adjudicate on the extension of the heritage of works representing this culture? The domineering position adopted by France, which is attempting to reactivate the role of cultural referee that it played for several centuries in Europe, will inevitably provoke a few reservations." (01/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Literatura, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Björn-Olav Dozo, » François Provenzano

In an interview published in the Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Krzeminski interviews the German historian Heinrich August Winkler, who among other things expresses his views on the fears of East Europeans: "More important than the nationalist resentments of certain Polish politicians for me is the fear of losing part of Poland's newly attained sovereignty to the EU, which is an alliance of states that exercise their sovereignty partially together but also partially through supranational institutions. These fears are also present in other new EU member states, and older members should handle them very carefully. This is why I believe the term 'European constitution' was not well chosen. It was bound to provoke opposition, not just in Poland and Great Britain. If we want to carry out the institutional reforms necessary for a functioning EU, we should take care not to exacerbate such fears." (01/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Religia, » Historia, » Światopogląd, » Grecja, » Rosja, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Heinrich August Winkler, » Adam Krzeminski

Christian Bommarius uses the "German autumn" of 1977, during which Red Army Faction terrorists murdered Hanns-Martin Schleyer among others, to illustrate how the constitutional state calls its own values into question when faced with terrorism: "The increased penalties, the curbing of civic and human rights, the extended powers for investigative authorities and the conversion to a state of prevention - all this would probably have come about after September 11 even without Germany's experiences with the RAF's terrorism. But the measures put in motion by lawmakers six years ago - which since then have become increasingly tough - all have their roots in the legislative reactions to the RAF terrorism of the 1970s. The restrictions on the rights of the defendant - for example the right to multiple defence, the introduction of §129a in the penal code under which support and membership of a terrorist organisation became a criminal offence, the law stipulating the solitary confinement of suspects, etc. - were the lawmakers' response to the situation back then." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Historia, » Niemcy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Christian Bommarius

Only recently a panel of Dutch historians compiled a canon of the 50 most important aspects of the nation's history. Now a new museum of national history has been founded in Arnheim. The journalist Christian Schlösser explains: "The failure in Srebrenica, the remarkable success of the right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn, the referendum against further EU integration and the murders of Fortuyn and the controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh have shaken the Dutch's image of themselves as a tolerant, multiethnic society... But at least there was a consensus about the need for a meta-story that would provide a deeply divided society with a new sense of social cohesion... The Anglo-Dutch journalist Ian Burama has pointed out in several publications that a meta-story that promotes social cohesion and the necessary forces of integration can only be constructed if you also provide the immigrants living in a country with their own identity and open up your own 'perspective for the foreign'. This will no doubt happen, despite the reluctance to take risks: historians from Belgium, which separated from the Netherlands in 1830, are to be allocated two halls of their own in the museum." (03/09/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Wystawy / Muzea, » Historia, » Holandia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Christian Schlösser

Just under two years after the Danish cartoon dispute, a Muhammad cartoon published in Nerikes Allehanda, a Swedish local newspaper, has provoked a new debate about freedom of expression. There have been official protests in both Iran and Pakistan, Swedish websites are being boycotted and Muslim groups in Sweden are demanding an apology. The newspaper comments: "It's only natural to feel offended. But that doesn't give one the right to curtail or annul others' freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy. Without it, free citizenship and the free society die... We in Europe are learning the following at present: respecting the right to feel offended... can deprive us of the ability... to defend our democracy. The Swedes are only now learning this lesson - but better late than never. We are a lot wiser now than we were two years ago." (01/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, duński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Dania, » Cały świat

The weekly responds to current debate in the UK concerning whether or not hold a referendum on the revised European treaty. "In the 21st century, Britain needs a community of common interests, committed to democratic values and where power is firmly in the hands of elected politicians. It needs a European Union. The EU is not the enemy of the sovereign nation state, it is the only mechanism there is for European governments to wield power on the world stage. But instead of being seen as a bulwark against the forces of globalisation, the EU has become a lightning rod for anxiety about powerlessness and the erosion of national sovereignty. British politicians have abetted that process, tacitly allowing or flagrantly encouraging vilification of Brussels. So now a huge weight of resentment risks falling on the shoulders of one frail treaty. ... Any referendum would end up implicitly being about membership of the union and it would be wrong to hang such a question on this document." (02/09/2007)

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

"A divided Belgium ? Everyone would lose out", is the headline of the daily. "Should the French-speakers fear for their well-being in a hypothetical scission in the country ? It would be naive to reply in the negative. Most estimations end up with an average reduction of French-speakers' budgets around 20 %. Concretely, this means that every French-speaker will have to make do with 1,000 euros less per year, while each inhabitant of Brussels will have 200 euros subtracted from their current budget. But the consequences do not end there. A number of specialists indicate a series of extra economic costs that would inevitably follow a scission: companies established in just one region would need to set up main offices in other places, multinationals might well migrate elsewhere." (31/08/2007)

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

The Paris-based Romanian writer Dinu Flamand writes about the success of Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu's film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", which won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes and is currently showing at French cinemas. "Mungiu raises issues like: Why do we make films? What purpose does art serve? His film about a tragic but commonplace abortion in socialist Romania is a simple story with the intensity of a Greek tragedy. Everyone admires the blend of symbols in the film. It uses the language of lives lived in fear and reconstructs the social atmosphere in Romania at the time, yet avoids the pitfalls of a pure portrayal of a people's misery. And in doing so it makes the West aware of how its neighbours lived in hell for decades." (01/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, rumuński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » Europa, » Rumunia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Dinu Flamand

Numerous Italian film-makers are currently questioning Italian cinema's current crisis in the press. For the Italian film-maker Ermanno Olmi, film is only the reflection of "the global crisis affecting all societies and not just Italy. We are confronted with changes that we have yet to assimilate. ... Cinema is showing us that our reality is to be found in a rather confused and disoriented state. ... Why was neorealism a big movement in cinema ? Because we were just emerging from a war. Common tragedies and suffering created a feeling of sharing, a quest for essential values. ... Italian film is indeed going through a crisis, but should the same question not be asked of literature, the arts, politics, of the economy and our governments ? " (01/09/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, La Repubblica)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » Włochy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Ermanno Olmi

"In Venice, America is finally crying over Iraq", writes Thierry Jobin. For, though the Cannes Film Festival last May announced "the end of 'cool violence', as Martin Scorcese put it, this weekend the Venice Mostra presented two works that indicated a very clear target (Bush) and battlefield (Iraq): In the Valley of Elah, by Paul Haggis and Redacted, by Brian De Palma. ... [The latter film] related ... the rape and murder of a young local inhabitant by American soldiers. ... In Venice, on Saturday, [De Palma] said that he was struck by how, compared for example to the Vietnam war, the Iraqi front is a conflict that we neither see nor feel and that it should thus come as no surprise that public opinion does not get really angry." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » USA, » Iran
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Thierry Jobin

On 28 November, 2008, the Estonian government plans to erect a pillar celebrating the country's independence in Tallinn to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Hannes Gamillscheg reports that the plans for the pillar have triggered a series of protests, primarily for aesthetic reasons, with critics complaining that the jury was composed of "people who had no clue about art". However according to Gamillscheg, the following question is more interesting from a political point of view: "How to depict Estonia's borders? Should the present borders be used or those which were valid under the Dorpat Peace Treaty back then? Two regions that belonged to Estonia at the time now belong to Russia. But if Estonia is drawn with its old borders Russia would no doubt accuse Estonia of making unwarranted territorial claims." (03/09/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Historia, » Estonia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Hannes Gamillscheg