Gas

Energy solidarity not yet on tap

Published on 17 Mar 2010   |   Rzeczpospolita

Control room of natural gas station in Hajduszoboszlo (Hungary). (AFP)

To avoid natural gas shortages that have marked the past few winters, the EU is studying a mutual assistance plan for member states. But the trigger conditions won't satisfy everyone, and member states aren't ready to play the game, writes Rzeczspospolita.
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EU–Mediterranean

On the other side of the Med

Published on 17 Mar 2010   |   El País
In these times of economic crisis, the countries of the southern Mediterranean are displaying unexpected dynamism – a trend the EU is beginning to shore up with regional cooperation projects, reports El País.
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The best of today's press

March 17 2010

Bucharest, mafia haven

Wanted for over 20 years by the Italian police, Sicilian Mafioso Giuseppe Scuderi (44) was finally apprehended on 16 March – in Bucharest.

See all today's press
 
Economic crisis   |   Germany in the dock
German trade clout is sapping other European economies. This sentiment, aired by the French finance minister and spreading fast across the EU, got thrashed out in today’s press.
Published on  16 Mar 2010  |   Presseurop
 
Italy   |   Papa’s boys, daddy’s girls
According to a recent OECD study, Italy ranks right after the UK as the wealthy nation in which a father’s income and educational attainments most heavily determine his sons’ success. And this dearth of social mobility is a drag on economic growth, notes the OECD.
Published on  16 Mar 2010  |   La Repubblica
 
Eurozone crisis   |   All for one, one for all
The idea of a European Monetary Fund is gaining ground. The object: to shore up countries like Greece whose overindebtedness poses a threat to the euro’s stability. Those opposed, especially in Germany, should remember the solidarity Europe once showed in joining forces to establish a viable union.
Published on  15 Mar 2010  |   El País
 
Economic crisis   |   Club Euro, an erratic door policy
Long-standing members against new ones, irresponsible states against virtuous states, tolerance of the EU against excessive demands: the crisis over the single currency has revealed a new faultline within the union, according to the Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev.
Published on  15 Mar 2010  |   Gazeta Wyborcza
 
Crisis   |   Farewell to fixed incomes
Battered by the economic crisis and drowning in deficits, several EU states have opted to cut public sector pay rather than devalue their currency. The choice is unpopular but not unprecedented, reports Il Sole 24 Ore.
Published on  12 Mar 2010  |   Il Sole-24 Ore
 
Greece   |   Athens forced to reinvent itself
The urban renewal project in the Greek capital has been hit by new government measures designed to remedy the disastrous state of the nation's finances. Without funding, city planners must explore other options, starting with the fight against cars and chaotic development.
Published on  12 Mar 2010  |   La Vanguardia
 
Ireland   |   A united island is inevitable
Following a 15-year peace process, the thought of a united Ireland no longer seems as unrealistic as it once did. And even unionists should come around to the idea, says Guardian columnist Seumas Milne.
Published on  12 Mar 2010  |   The Guardian
 
Geopolitics   |   Revolutions fail to change the East
In Ukraine and Georgia, "pro-Western" movements, which are hoping for a second wind even though they cannot count on support from the EU, are not only paying for their poor political performance but also for the fact that they no longer figure in Europe's geopolitical ambitions, explains Polish political analyst Olaf Osica.
Published on  11 Mar 2010  |   Tygodnik Powszechny
 
Religion   |   Blasphemy policies are no laughing matter
From Ireland to Greece and from France to Poland, Europe’s lawmakers strike an uneasy and widely varying balance between protecting freedom of speech and protecting the Church. So when will Europe finally get its principles straight, asks a Swedish journalist.
Published on  11 Mar 2010  |   Svenska Dagbladet
 
Paedophilia   |   European Church in need of redemption
After a wave of similar revelations swept through the United States and Ireland, cases of past child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church and affiliated institutions are cropping up all over the continent. Following cautious and ultimately unsatisfactory reactions from the ecclesiastical top brass and the Vatican, national authorities have been compelled to take action.
Published on  10 Mar 2010  |   El País
 
 
 

Blog

 

French is just too provincial

One of the most consistently informative and entertaining blogs about the European Union has to be Jean Quatremer’s Coulisses de Bruxelles.

Losing Angela in translation

When presseurop.eu was launched in May last year, one of its guiding mottos was Umberto Eco’s “The future of Europe is translation.” But sometimes I’m inclined to think that the future of Europe is lost in translation. I recently checked a statement by Angela Merkel concerning the CD-rom nabbed by HSBC supergrass Hervé Falciani containing data on Germans who have siphoned off their money to Switzerland in order to avoid taxes back home.

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