Lithuania
-
Baltic: Chemical threat lurking beneath the sea
26 March 201380213 Uważam Rze Warsaw -
War on terrorism: ‘A network of eager CIA helpers’
6 February 2013471PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Lithuania: A single passport is no longer enough
31 January 20131121 Veidas Vilnius -
Lithuania: The Belarussians are coming
16 January 201386 Veidas Vilnius -
The front page: 21 December 2012
21 December 201213PresseuropPolitis, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Lietuvos Rytas & 4 others -
The front page: 12 November 2012
12 November 201221PresseuropTo Ethnos, Delo, Lietuvos Rytas & 4 others -
Lithuania: The KGB still walks among us
8 November 20121681 Veidas Vilnius -
The front page: 29 October 2012
29 October 201218PresseuropThe Times, Kurier, Polska The Times & 4 others -
Lithuania-Belarus: The new Iron Curtain
25 October 20122381 15min Vilnius -
Belarus: Voyage to the heart of Europe’s “grey zone”
17 October 20121219 Timpul Chisinau -
The front page: 15 October 2012
15 October 201224PresseuropSüddeutsche Zeitung, De Standaard, La Libre Belgique & 4 others -
The front page: 12 October 2012
12 October 201222PresseuropDe Morgen, Népszabadság, Die Presse & 4 others -
Lithuania-Russia: Stubbing out Kaliningrad’s illicit cigarette trade
27 September 2012474 15min Vilnius -
Europe: Between east and west, a gulf of stereotypes
16 July 201230854 IQ The Economist Vilnius -
Lithuania: Vilnius wants reparations for Soviet occupation
30 May 2012581PresseuropLietuvos Rytas -
The front page: 26 April 2012
26 April 201227PresseuropEl País, Financial Times Deutschland, Financial Times Deutschland & 4 others -
Eastern Europe: Fall-out amongst Baltic neighbours
17 April 20121644 Veidas Vilnius -
Emigration: “Good life does not come easily in Lithuania”
10 February 2012120 Veidas Vilnius -
Lithuania: Nurses go Norway
20 December 20111061 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius -
Banks: The crash that has rocked Lithuania
25 November 2011PresseuropVeidas -
Railways: Greater European network on track
20 October 2011PresseuropLa Vanguardia -
Lithuania: Basketball, a question of independence
7 September 201194 Libération Paris -
Lithuania-Poland : School strike suspended, tensions remain
5 September 2011PresseuropPolska The Times -
1991-2011: A Baltic triumph
19 August 2011143 IQ The Economist Vilnius -
INTERVIEW: Paolo Rumiz: “The heart of Europe beats in the East”
5 August 2011PresseuropBlog -
Lithuania-Austria: Release of KGB officer creates chill
19 July 2011PresseuropVilniaus diena -
Jobs: Youth unemployment endemic in Europe
27 June 2011PresseuropPolitiken -
Theatre: New talent comes from the East
27 May 201171 Polityka Warsaw -
Russia-EU: Who will open this window on Europe?
10 May 2011541 Polityka Warsaw -
Lithuania: Rubbish champions
29 April 201160 Veidas Vilnius -
Labour market: Work in Germany? Yes, maybe
29 April 20111571 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Lithuania: Demonstrating against the nuclear spectre
27 April 20111PresseuropLietuvos Rytas -
Central Europe: The wilted charms of the euro
4 April 201172 Presseurop -
Poland-Lithuania: Polish-Lithuanian education feud
31 March 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Nuclear energy: Chernobyl to Fukushima - media gets it wrong
17 March 2011104 Postimees Tallinn -
Baltic states: Where minorities must hold their tongue
6 January 2011814 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Pharmaceutical industry: European guinea pigs
23 December 2010160PresseuropVanity Fair -
Baltic states: Following Estonia’s lead
13 December 201070 Atgimimas Vilnius -
Poland / Lithuania: Why Warsaw and Vilnius are at loggerheads
4 November 201054 Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
Black market: Lithuania's taxes go up in smoke
29 September 2010481 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius -
Stability pact: That figures
18 August 2010PresseuropPúblico -
Fires: The ghost of Chernobyl again floating over Europe
12 August 2010PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
History: Grunwald, the battle that changed Central Europe
15 July 2010172PresseuropPolska The Times -
Baltic States and the crisis (3): Lithuania, no country for old men
22 April 201055 The New York Times New York -
Baltic states and the crisis (1): Running for the euro
14 April 201017 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
University: Schools feel cost of crisis
30 March 201043 Adevărul Bucharest -
Baltic Sea: The big cleanup begins
11 February 2010PresseuropHelsingin Sanomat -
Crime: The war on cigarette smuggling
21 January 20102 Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
Lithuania: CIA’s little helpers
23 December 2009PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Central and Eastern Europe: World Bank's forsees debt gloom
4 December 2009PresseuropDziennik Gazeta Prawna
Thousands of tonnes of chemical weapons sunk in the Baltic Sea after WWII pose a lethal hazard to humans and the environment. After 70 years at the bottom of the sea, the corroded containers risk leaking deadly poisons, warns a Polish journalist. 
Ice dancer Deividas Stagniunas’ American partner has recently had her application for a Lithuanian passport turned down. The decision has reignited the debate on the identity of a country that is opening up to the rest of the world. 
Hotels, shops and spas are all profiting from wealthy clients but also from the middle classes coming from the other side of the Belarus border. 
Twenty-two years after it was dismantled, the KGB continues to rouse passions in Lithuania. The publication of the names of former employees of the Soviet security agency has exposed some politicians and officials. Are they still a threat to the state? 
In the Soviet era, when Lithuania and Belarus were both part of the USSR, there were several villages spanning a border that existed only on paper. Today, crossing from one side to the other has become a nightmare. 
When a Moldovan visits Belarus, “the last true dictatorship at the heart of Europe”, a comparison with the Soviet era is inevitable. And yet the people of Belarus look towards Europe as much as they look towards Moscow. 
In spite of the installation of increasingly sophisticated surveillance equipment, Lithuanian authorities are still struggling to eradicate a highly lucrative cross-border traffic in cigarettes with the neighbouring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Their task is made all the more difficult by the wide variety of interests served by the illegal trade. 
In the Netherlands, Eastern Europeans have replaced Muslims as a target of the far right. The hostility is fed by clichés widespread throughout Western Europe, regrets a Lithuanian journalist, who admits that his own countrymen are not free from prejudice. 
Historically linked by a common destiny, and often mistaken for one another, the national interests of the three small former Soviet states can, on occasion, come into conflict. Today the influence of Scandinavia has proved to be a force that is bringing them together. 
In a time of crisis with high unemployment, young Lithuanians are following in the footsteps of their emigrant ancestors. Tens of thousands have left the country in search of a better life, mainly in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The weekly Veidas reports: 
Faced with the economic crisis, Lithuanian medical staff are increasingly leaving to work in Norway, where salaries are much higher. Although they do not become exiles, they do have to contend with a permanent schedule of return journeys between Oslo and Vilnius. 
The particular fervour gripping Lithuania, which is currently hosting EuroBasket 2011, is part of a long tradition in a Baltic country that has expressed its identity on the basketball court since Soviet times. 
In August 1991, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia declared their independence from a collapsing USSR. Despite a few hiccups along the way, twenty years on they have definitively turned the page on Communism and come back to their roots in Europe. 
Europe has lost six great names in the performing arts, but their succession is assured by a new generation of directors, most of whom hail from Central and Eastern Europe. 
Residents of a region that considers itself to be a “window on Europe,” the population of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is located between Poland and Lithuania, want Moscow to establish closer links with the EU. In particular, they are hoping for an end to a requirement for visas for European travel: an “iron curtain” that separates them from Western modernity. 
Each year, every Lithuanian throws out 500 kilos of household waste and “forgets” to sort the recyclables. Slowly, though, attitudes are starting to change. 
On 1 May, the doors will open wide for Poles, Czechs and other eastern Europeans now free to work in Germany. But no one expects a stampede. Quite the opposite: German companies will have to woo the new guest workers ardently and assiduously. 
Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has dampened enthusiasm for the single currency in most of the countries of Central Europe. Today, only the Baltic States are still eager to join the Eurozone, writes "Rzeczpospolita".
In 1986, Estonians were Soviet citizens and had no idea what was going on at Chernobyl. Today they are members of the European Union, but whether they are better informed is questionable, writes the daily Postimees. 
The linguistic rights of the sizeable Russian and Polish minorities in the three former Soviet republics, which joined the EU in 2004, are hardly recognised. A Dutch journalist deplores governmental intransigence on the issue of languages. 
On 1st January, Estonia will become the first Baltic state to join the euro zone — a development which an Estonian political scientist believes will offer a strong motivation to neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania to follow in its footsteps and also encourage more cooperation between the three countries.
With growing bitterness, Poland believes that its partnership with Lithuania is one built on empty promises. At the heart of the debate - the rights of the Polish minority in the Baltic state. 
The crisis may have brought Lithuania to its knees, but business is booming on the black market. Armed with his calculator and a sense of adventure, Marius Jokubaitis set out to discover just how much tax revenue petrol and cigarette smugglers are diverting from the state. 
Severely affected by the economic crisis, no other country, apart from Ireland, has effected more severe public spending cuts than Lithuania. While austerity has yet to elicit the same level of protest as seen in Greece or in Spain, it has had a tremendous personal and social cost. 
The worst is over for the Baltic States. For the first time since the beginning of the financial crisis, Moody's has upped its ratings outlooks for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia: a sign that the three republics will soon be able to join the eurozone.
The education sector in Europe has been hard hit by cuts in budgets, personnel and investment. Some universities, e.g. in the UK, might even have to be closed down. And some leading institutions could soon lose their top international rankings.
One cigarette in every ten sold in the European Union has been illegally imported. To combat the booming business in smuggled tobacco from Eastern Europe and Asia, Brussels has decided to tighten security on the EU's external borders. Poland is in the front line of the war on the cigarette smugglers.
- 1 of 2
- next