Culture & Ideas
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THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 2: Saddle those horses
25 December 20103682 Presseurop -
European Union: The year of the end of secrets
23 December 2010PresseuropVisão -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 1: Pariah therefore European
23 December 20101865 Presseurop -
Hungary: Budapest, where are you going?
22 December 20104075 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
United Kingdom: Always be nice to Mr Murdoch’s empire
22 December 20101PresseuropThe Independent -
Spain: A bug in the bill to stop file-sharing
22 December 2010PresseuropPúblico -
Hungary: Budapest cracks down on press
21 December 2010PresseuropNépszabadság -
Debates: You'd rather see China or Russia leading?
20 December 20102041 El País Madrid -
New technologies: Poland hits internet warp speed
17 December 20101PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Spain: King of flamenco dies
14 December 2010PresseuropABC -
Internet: WikiLeaks copycat targets EU institutions
14 December 2010293 EUobserver.com Brussels -
Literature: Has America discovered Europe?
10 December 2010104 The New York Times New York -
Debt crisis: Ireland - Germany’s paradise lost
7 December 20101641 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Cultural heritage: Is austerity eating at European history?
6 December 2010288 The Guardian London -
Economic crisis: Can Cantona break the banks?
6 December 2010PresseuropLa Tribune -
Internet: Google under investigation
1 December 20101PresseuropLa Tribune -
Italy: Monicelli's dramatic last scene
30 November 2010PresseuropLa Stampa -
Wikileaks: What America thinks of us
29 November 20101PresseuropDer Spiegel -
Italy: Quality television in Berlusconi-land
26 November 2010180 L'Espresso Rome -
Internet: EU chews on web cookies
25 November 201083 The Wall Street Journal Europe Brussels -
European of the week: How I survived the Irish boom
24 November 20104661 The Times London -
Debate: Capitalism, but not as you know it
23 November 2010180 Dilema Veche Bucharest -
Netherlands: Dutch scream for culture
22 November 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
World heritage: UNESCO digs flamenco and med food
17 November 2010PresseuropEl Periódico de Catalunya -
History: Unearthing the Tycho Brahe mystery
16 November 2010PresseuropPolitiken -
European of the week: The riddle of Princess Hijab
12 November 2010466 The Guardian London -
Literature: Houellebecq king of French letters
9 November 2010PresseuropLibération -
Romania: Death of Ceauşescu’s poet laureate
8 November 2010PresseuropRomânia libera -
Democracy: Berlusconi and the abuses of power
4 November 2010169 La Repubblica Rome -
Travel: Krakow and Warsaw, sibling rivals
2 November 201050 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
Democracy: It takes conflict to build a world
1 November 20101471 Berliner Zeitung Berlin -
Wikileaks: The war of words
25 October 2010146 Presseurop -
Urban planning: The metamorphosis of Prague
25 October 2010137 Hospodářské Noviny Prague -
History: The evolving memory of the Shoah
21 October 201071 Le Figaro Paris -
Exhibitions: Art - the bigger the better
20 October 2010112 De Standaard Brussels -
Germany: Why did we so love Adolf?
15 October 20101601 Presseurop -
European of the Week: No downfall for Bruno Ganz
8 October 201019 România libera Bucharest -
Literature: Nobel boost for Hispanic Culture
8 October 2010PresseuropABC -
Crisis: Getting to grips with the future
4 October 20101543 La Repubblica Rome -
Debates: Diversity and solidarity - happy bed-fellows?
27 September 201076 Les Echos Paris -
Debate: How the left lost it
22 September 20101262 Polska The Times Warsaw -
Cinema: Claude Chabrol, France's dark looking-glass
13 September 2010PresseuropLibération -
Debate: Whither the European mind?
10 September 2010312 Philosophie Magazine Paris -
Cities: The spirit of urban renewal
8 September 201085 La Stampa Turin -
Counterfeiting: Fake is absolutely fabulous
3 September 2010124 The Daily Telegraph London -
Science: God is demoted, again
2 September 2010PresseuropThe Times -
Crime: The art thieves stalking Europe
27 August 201046 International Herald Tribune Paris -
Sweden: WikiLeaks boss in rape “smear”
23 August 2010PresseuropAftonbladet -
Comedy: Funny foreigners
20 August 201022 The Guardian London -
Internet: Hasta la vista, Street View
19 August 2010PresseuropDziennik Gazeta Prawna
Given the political, social and religious confusion that plagues Europe, Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater pleads for a new spirit of openness to talents, ideas and creeds. 
Dutch writer Arnon Grunberg says he had to move to New York to begin feeling truly European. This may be because his family’s identity was built on exile and rootlessness. This is a story that, today, applies to many others. 
On 21 December, Prime minister Viktor Orbán pushed a bill through parliament restricting press freedoms. As Hungary prepares to take the EU’s presidency, why is no-one in Europe talking about this? wonders Gazeta Wyborcza columnist Jacek Pawlicki. 
The euro crisis and enduring political divisions between Europeans have undermined the Old Continent’s standing in a globalised world. It’s time to save the European way, urges Venezuelan columnist Moisés Naim: the alternatives – US hegemony, Chinese capitalist communism or Russian autocracy – are far worse. 
A self-funded group of former EU officials and NGO, media and PR-sector workers based in Belgium has set up an EU version of WikiLeaks, in what is just one of several copycat sites springing up since Cablegate began. 
With the help of independent publishing houses and with the input from the Old World’s cultural institutes and agencies, European literature is finally making inroads in the United States, a country which traditionally shies away from books in translation. 
Ireland, the poor, pure island, was a place Germans longed for, at least ever since Heinrich Böll. Till the country succumbed to turbo-capitalism, dealing another body blow to the euro and dashing the German dream of a better world, laments Der Spiegel. 
With culture ministries forced to slash spending, one of the victims of pan-European austerity budgets is Europe's cultural heritage. But if we want to save Pompeii and other priceless sites and monuments, then heritage policy, and the way money is spent, might be in need of a shake-up. 
Sober and incisive, "Vieni via con me" co-presented by anti-Mafia writer, Roberto Saviano, has set new ratings records in the land of Berlusconi. In the run-up to the last programme of the four episode series scheduled for 29 November, Italian television guru, Carlo Freccero, analyses the reasons for its success. 
Europe's effort to regulate online "cookies" is crumbling, exposing how tough it is to curb the practice of tracking Internet users' movements on the Web. 
Irish author Julian Gough got through the Celtic Tiger years on little more than love and fresh air. Now resident in Berlin, here’s his tale of staying sceptical (and broke) as the rest of the country went mad (and bust) on property fever. 
Today the market economy holds sway over the entire continent. But can we be sure that it is really the same everywhere? In Eastern Europe, capitalists who prospered in a feudal post-communist environment have created a very particular system. 
In the midst of heated debates about national identity and burqa bans, French graffiti artist Princess Hijab’s ad-busting interventions on Paris metro fashion ads now have a worldwide audience. But who is she? And does it matter if she’s not even a she? 
The abuse of power is an irresistible temptation, which is why liberal constitutions establish checks and balances on the exercise of power. But Silvio Berlusconi’s latest transgressions go to show that even a liberal constitutional democracy is not proof against wanton abuse. 
The eternal rivalry between Poland’s former and the current capitals has lead to intense competition in the field of tourism. It is a hard-fought battle in which visitors to the two cities will be the main winners. 
Whether it’s against austerity packages, pension reforms or nuclear waste shipments, protests have overrun the streets of Europe. Has democracy reached the end of the line? No, says futurist Matthias Horx, it’s time for the political establishment to come down off their high horse and accept real participatory democracy. 
The publication of more than 400,000 documents by the WikiLeaks website and several major newspapers has shed light on day-to-day events in the field, but much of the European press is critical of the manner in which this information is presented to the public. 
Environmental activists devote much of their activity to protecting the countryside, but in future preserving cities from aesthetic pollution will become an even greater priority, argues British philosopher Roger Scruton, citing Prague - the "spiritual centre of Europe" - as the perfect example. 
The Shoah Memorial in Paris, one of the world’s largest centres for documentation on Jewish memory, continues to collect material for its archives. As one generation gives way to the next, families are more and more willing to hand over objects and documents that define their past. 
An immense inflatable mannequin, thousands of empty cans, a 17-metre high tower: several of the works currently on display in Belgium point to the trend for gigantism in contemporary art. 
A new exhibition in Berlin tries for the first time to fathom the secret of Hitler’s hold on his people – with mixed results, says the German press. 
Every year the European Film Academy honours a practitioner of the “seventh art” for the entirety of his or her past work. This year the lifetime achievement award goes to Swiss actor Bruno Ganz. 
In America and Europe, the economic crisis increasingly resembles an existential one. Solutions for an alternative future do exist, but as French sociologist Alain Touraine points out, politicians are reluctant to embrace them. 
Tensions between regions in Belgium and Italy, and the expulsion of the Roma from France have highlighted an underlying conflict in societies that wish to be both generous and socially diverse. According to two French economists, it is a tug-of-war that also has the potential to undermine the European Union. 
With its representatives confined to the opposition benches nearly everywhere in Europe, the left is increasingly unable to propose a real alternative in a world where ideology is progressively disappearing. 
The idea of a declining Europe, which has been reinforced by poor demographic and economic indicators, has become a fashionable talking point. But writing in the colums of France’s Philosophie Magazine, Alexandre Lacroix insists that the vitality of a civilisation is also measured in terms of the strength of its creative initiative. 
A number of declining ex-industrial European cities like Bilbao, Berlin and Lille have succeeded in using culture to buck the downward trend. But a fancy new opera house or mega-museum is not enough to kindle the urban renewal dynamic: an open mind for the unexpected and even inefficient is also an indispensable ingredient.
A new European Union-funded report has declared that buying counterfeited designer goods can benefit consumers and the companies whose brands are being ripped off. 
The vulnerability of museums and high-end art owners to costly thefts has been a whispered concern in France for years, but two events here are forcing the issue into the open. 
Heard the one about the German, the Italian and the Norwegian? They are all reinventing comedy in English by playing on nuances in their own languages