Culture & Ideas
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European union: A crisis of democracy as much as finance
25 January 201359969 The Guardian London -
Poland: ‘Death of the president’
25 January 2013527PresseuropPolska The Times -
Romania: Local literature on its last legs
24 January 20131817 România libera Bucharest -
Press freedom: Report advocates more powers to Brussels
23 January 2013696PresseuropFinancial Times -
Slovakia: A sigh for Košice
18 January 20131174 Lidové noviny Prague -
Spain: ‘Spanish, the world’s second language’
15 January 20132474PresseuropABC -
Estonia: Power to the people – sort of
8 January 20134822PresseuropPostimees, Eesti Päevaleht -
New Year's Quiz: 40 trick questions about Europe
31 December 201284955 Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Frankfurt -
The press in Europe (5/5): Embedded in the Brussels bubble
28 December 201248614 Inside Story Melbourne -
The press in Europe (4/5): Culture is becoming a luxury
27 December 201291817 Axess Stockholm -
The press in Europe (2/5): Still pandering to the power brokers
25 December 20124099 The New York Times New York -
The press in Europe (1/5): El País: delusions of grandeur
24 December 201265018 Mediapart Paris -
Croatia: Ivo Josipović: in tune with the times
20 December 2012131 Le Monde Paris -
Hungary: The government imposes its national culture
20 December 20122382PresseuropMagyar Narancs, Népszava, Magyar Nemzet -
European Union: Is Europe standing on its head?
18 December 201238028 Dagens Nyheter Stockholm -
European Union: Vanished frontiers earn EU its Nobel Prize
10 December 201242031 El País Madrid -
Poland: Katowice mining the past
7 December 20121853 New Eastern Europe Cracow -
Press : The article will self destruct
6 December 20123148 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
United Kingdom: Taming the Fourth Estate
30 November 2012788PresseuropFinancial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun -
Denmark: Danish model is a small screen success
30 November 201286933 Le Monde Paris -
Poland: War film triggers examination of conscience
20 November 20125634PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza, Uważam Rze -
Austerity: No sacrifices without hope
16 November 2012286141 Project Syndicate Prague -
Debt crisis: A plague of received ideas
14 November 201218415 Hospodářské Noviny Prague -
Debate: How to preserve the European miracle
13 November 201229465 Dagens Arena Stockholm -
United Kingdom: Heads fall as BBC plunges further into crisis
12 November 20123117PresseuropThe Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian -
Debate: All of Europe’s misfortunes
12 November 201216314 Polska The Times Warsaw -
Press freedom: Greece — more austerity, less liberty
6 November 20122747 The Observer London -
Greece: Why I published the Lagarde List
31 October 2012156490 The Guardian London -
Debate: Federal Europe best cure for current gloom
29 October 201230544 Corriere della Sera Milan -
Debate: Give us a break with your nation states
25 October 201219285 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Debate: Erasmus generation, you’re Europe’s last hope
24 October 2012220672 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Debate: A federation, yes, but what kind?
23 October 201222469 Respekt Prague -
Debate: “Europhorics”, our most dangerous friends
22 October 201236522 Die Zeit Hamburg -
Debate: Europe’s future lies in much-maligned South
18 October 201260186 Financial Times Deutschland Hamburg -
Catalonia-Scotland: Spain, Britain and the forbidden fruits of independence
16 October 201246649 Financial Times London -
Debate: Let’s give EU’s Nobel money to Erasmus
15 October 2012262348 The Guardian London -
Belgium: Hollywood on the North Sea
12 October 2012671 De Standaard Brussels -
Debate: The disenfranchisement of Europe
12 October 2012153152 Der Hauptstadtbrief Berlin -
Debate: A European constitution for the 21st century
5 October 201219857 The Guardian London -
Eurozone crisis: Why German unification was a mistake
3 October 2012595153 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis: Federalism or death!
28 September 2012760194 Le Point Paris -
Debate: An infantile satire that no longer informs
28 September 20128915 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Debate: Towards a diplomacy without inhibitions
28 September 201213411 El País Madrid -
European integration: Looking beyond market and power
26 September 201219863 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
European integration: SimEurope is not a game
24 September 201210915 The Economist London -
Photography : Their Europe is ours too
21 September 20121112 Público Lisbon -
Debate: Do we believe in the EU?
21 September 201228592 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Netherlands: The East’s “strawberry pickers” make the stage
14 September 20121144 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Debate: The Eurozone devalues Europe
11 September 2012198118 Ta Nea Athens -
Eurozone crisis: A new war of religion
7 September 2012532274 Corriere della Sera Milan
The spirit of dictators like Nicolae Ceauşescu is finding new life in the response of the European elite to the eurozone crisis, says Slovenian thinker Slavoj Žižek. The same distrust of democracy that once constrained the developing or the post-communist countries is now gaining ground in Europe. 
We have freedom of movement, freedom of information and freedom of speech, but we are prisoners of a disdain for our language and culture, which is feeding illiteracy, complains a Romanian historian and writer. 
Košice this year shares with Marseille the title of European Capital of Culture (ECOC). An acronym that Slovaks shorten to "Ehmk" and which sounds more like a sigh than a top class cultural event, notes a Slovak music critic. 
Three years of the euro crisis, 2013 is around the corner, and you still have some questions? So does essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The outspoken critics of the Brussels bureaucracy has been inspired to draw up a quiz – with, of course, entirely objective questions. Have fun! 
The Belgian capital is the heart of the EU power machine, where dozens of journalists try to cover the activities of all the institutions. But as an Australian newcomer founds out, they have too much information and too little time to make sense of what’s going on. 
Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet has decided to cut back on its literature section to make space for more lifestyle pages. One of the critics that the newspaper let go complains that the newspaper’s bid to reach out to a wider public will result in an increasingly impoverished press. 
Collusion between the media and politicians seemed to be greater than ever under former French President Sarkozy. But, rather than ditch these olds habits, François Hollande, the low-profile new head of state, is quite happy to keep the media close. 
A success story of the transition to democracy and a showcase for Spanish journalism, today the left-wing daily is struggling to cope with huge losses, which have even affected its editorial line — a crisis exacerbated by the newspaper’s managers who have refused to take responsibility for their actions. 
The new year will be busy for Ivo Josipović, the President of Croatia. For one, his country will join the European Union on July 1, 2013. That means this atypical head of state, who is both a lawyer and a composer, will have to wait a while longer before returning to his piano to finish an opera about John Lennon. 
Born to give a political dimension to the common values of Europeans, the Union, with the complicity of the member states, has acquired power and skills that have weakened the people it was supposed to defend, argues the Irish writer Colm Tóibín. 
Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU has left many perplexed. However, notes political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca, a reminder of the long “European civil war” that began in the 19th century should be enough to justify it. 
How does a city reinvent itself and build a new identity on a lost industrial past? By betting on culture and architecture to attract tourists. This Silesian city is following Bilbao’s footsteps and will open a rejuvenated museum in January. 
The Financial Times Deutschland is hitting the newstands for the last time on December 7, and the Frankfurter Rundschau is insolvent. Behind this, lies a development that is bigger than the Internet, says media guru Sascha Lobo: news is becoming ever more streamlined. The concept of whole, complete article is out of date. 
Lord Justice Leveson’s much-anticipated report into British press standards was published yesterday and provided a damning indictment of media ethics. As a result of the scandal, which erupted over illegal interception of telephone calls, a host of journalists including two former News of the World editors, face criminal charges including bribery. 
A small country with just 6 million inhabitants, Denmark is now a rising star in the world of television thanks to well-crafted series like “Borgen”. Developed by a production system that is unlike any other, the shows owe much of their success to the almost total freedom granted to screenwriters. 
If the EU had greater legitimacy, Europeans would agree more readily to the efforts that are asked of them, because they could then expect to see these sacrifices rewarded. 
In the Middle Ages, just as now, crises were conducive to the emergence of all sorts of myths. Just as the plague was blamed on the Jews, Europe and the single currency are supposedly responsible for the world's current woes. An idea that economist Tomáš Sedláček seeks to contradict. 
The crisis might be undermining the EU project, but a journey through the former “bloodlands” of Europe’s historical wars reminds us of what the Union has done for the continent, writes a Swedish journalist. If we want to make sure that democracy doesn't perish again, we mustn't shirk from getting citizens involved in the political life of the EU. 
The Old Continent is grappling with a moderately severe economic crisis, a severe political crisis, a critical civilisational crisis, and perhaps a deadly spiritual crisis, argues a Polish philosopher. 
While the EU is keen to expose increasing authoritarianism in Viktor Orbán's Hungary, it tellingly turns a blind eye on the erosion of press freedom in Greece, the country on which it has foisted a raft of self-defeating austerity measures, argues a British columnist. 
In 2010, the so-called “Lagarde List”, which names more 2,000 Greek tax evaders, was handed over to the Greek government. But nothing was done. Kostas Vaxevanis, editor in chief of Hot Doc, was recently arrested for publishing it. For him, it’s a symptom of Greece's corruption. 
For Italian writer Claudio Magris, the only way to dispel the dismay prompted by the European economic and political crisis is to create a strong, decentralised and respected federal state. 
Those who are arguing today for more Europe have provoked the wrath of the professional democracy purists who hold up the nation state as an ideal model. But do we seriously want to live in a super-Austria? 
Don’t count on EU leaders to get us out of the crisis. The future will be shaped by the youth they have forgotten, writes Polish philosopher Jarosław Makowski, as Brussels seeks funds to help the student exchange programme survive the budget cuts. 
Whether it be political, budgetary, or based on financial solidarity, the idea of a more integrated EU is in fashion. But just what final form would the Federal Union take in the end? Nobody really knows, and that’s the whole problem. 
There are the “Eurosceptics”, and there are “Eurohaters”. And then there are the “Europhorics”, who are to be found among both intellectuals and politicians and who are at least as dangerous as the former. To them the EU is not a union, but a worldview – and they are abusing it. 
Ever since the euro crisis broke out, the Mediterranean has been portrayed as nothing but a hotbed of problems. That’s a monumental error, writes German political scientist Claus Leggewie, who shows the way towards a new federal Europe oriented towards its southern shores. 
While British PM David Cameron has signed off on a Scottish independence referendum for 2014, Spain rules out a similar vote in Catalonia as unconstitutional. One decision is politically mature, the other likely to fuel rising secessionist demands, argues Gideon Rachman. 
For its Eramus student exchange programme alone, the EU deserves its Nobel Prize, for fomenting trans-national love-making and the creation of true Europeans. 
With its well-preserved natural landscapes, tax breaks and competent technician, Belgium over the last few years has become the location of choice for European film makers. 
With acronyms like EFSF or ESM and mantras that preach that there are no alternatives, such as “If the euro fails, Europe fails”, politicians are undermining Europe’s historical democracy. And they won’t pull through that way, writes German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger. 
The EU’s leaders are currently hammering out a new project for the Union, but if they want to avoid a repeat of the rejected constitution of 2005, they might do well to consult the post-apartheid South African model, write two academics, one Portuguese, one American. 
Thirty years after the inauguration of Helmut Kohl and 22 years after German reunification, the former chancellor is being celebrated as the father of German unity. But the truth is that, by hastily joining the GDR to the Federal Republic, he planted the seeds of the euro crisis, argues Wolfgang Münchau. 
For French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, Europe has no option but advance towards the simple goal of political union. If not, the euro will die. 
Seldom has satire been so much in the public spotlight. It’s just a pity that today, of all times, it’s never been so bad. Whether it’s Charlie Hebdo in France or Titanic in Germany, the religious taunting in place of political satire is getting boring. 
To make Europe’s voice heard on the world stage, its policymakers should adopt a more incisive and strident tone. A number of rambunctious young ministers of foreign affairs, like Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski and Finland's Alexander Stubb, are revamping the old continent’s old fashioned sense of protocol. 
Differing social and cultural patterns amongst Europeans are all too often overlooked. And this poses a threat to the core of the European project, points out a Dutch sociologist, arguing that political leaders should engage in a dialogue with their citizens. 
EU leaders and governments are busy designing the future of the EU. But these fantasies of the More Europe variety forget just one thing: the real-life eurozone crisis, writes The Economist’s Charlemagne. 
What is our Europe like? How do we see it? How do we experience it? We all live in the same space, but without seeing it in the same way: an observation demonstrated by the works on show at the European Photo Exhibition Award, which is set to run until 18 November at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris. 
Crisis is a good moment for an examination of conscience. If war broke out in Europe today, would anyone be willing to die for the ideas of Schuman or Monnet’s community method? 
Through a theatre performance about Eastern European migrants, a theatre maker in the southern Netherlands town of Zundert, with some 3,000 Eastern European labour migrants, hopes to bridge the divide between local inhabitants and the immigrants. 
For months, both Greeks and Germans have been talking about the possibility of Greece leaving the euro. And one of the implications of this discussion is that outside of the single currency, there is no EU — a notion that Greek writer Petros Markaris remarks is divisive to the point where it encourages mutual disdain. 
The opposition between ”virtuous” Northern countries and the “prodigal” South is looking increasingly like the historical fracture between Protestantism and Catholicism, notes an Italian columnist and Vatican expert.