Culture & Ideas
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Architecture: Scaling down on starchitects
6 April 2010203 Trouw Amsterdam -
Journalism: The incredible shrinking E.U. press corps
2 April 201054 4 The New York Times New York -
Czech Republic: Reflex magazine is 20
2 April 2010Presseurop -
Easter: St Paul was a leftie
2 April 20101PresseuropNew Statesman -
Languages: Goodbye English, long live Globish
2 April 2010271 15 The Guardian London -
Norway: Bergen, rain and booze and rock ’n’ roll
31 March 2010120 Politiken Copenhagen -
Internet: Delete, don’t block
30 March 201033 The Guardian London -
Denmark: Ni Hao Little Mermaid
26 March 2010PresseuropPolitiken -
France: Paris book fair’s identity crisis
25 March 2010PresseuropLibération -
Languages: French resistance, German collaboration
22 March 20105 Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
Estonia: Blank front pages fight anti-press laws
19 March 2010PresseuropPostimees -
Literature: Hoax Shakespeare is for real, says expert
16 March 2010PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
Ireland: A united island is inevitable
12 March 201030 The Guardian London -
Netherlands: Peter Stuyvesant artwork makes a packet
9 March 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
A town in Europe: The Ruhr - from coal to culture
5 March 201069 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Private life: Arresting the cyber-police
3 March 201019 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Internet: Private life? Depends how old you are
3 March 201061 The Times London -
Cinema: A Prophet, language is power
1 March 2010151 2 The Guardian London -
Denmark: Newspaper begs Islam's forgiveness
26 February 20101PresseuropPolitiken -
European of the week: Florence Aubenas, undercover on the crisis
26 February 2010102 Le Monde Paris -
Identity: In praise of the manifold self
19 February 2010181 2 De Standaard Brussels -
European of the Week: Agata Buzek, not just daddy's girl?
19 February 2010Polska The Times Warsaw -
Media: For press freedom, click Iceland
18 February 201086 1 Adevărul Bucharest -
Multilinguism: Bye bye signor Orban, et dank U
12 February 201021 1 Dilema Veche Bucharest -
European of the Week: Helene Hegemann, the art of cut and paste
11 February 2010165 4 Berliner Zeitung Berlin -
Cinema: Bread and circuses at the Berlinale
11 February 2010PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
Belgium: Turkish cinema bigger than Hollywood
10 February 201013 De Standaard Brussels -
A town in Europe: Cieszyn, a border run through it
5 February 201023 1 Polityka Warsaw -
Czech Republic: Prague supports Chinese dissident for Nobel
4 February 2010PresseuropLidové noviny -
Communication: Europe doesn't have to look cheesy
2 February 201062 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Internet: Fine art of virtual museums
29 January 201091 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Tower of Babel: Talk the hind legs, off a cobbler...
29 January 2010Cafebabel.com Paris -
Trends: Better than Avatar, live big-screen opera
27 January 2010Svenska Dagbladet Stockholm -
European of the Week: Eric Cantona : striker universalis
26 January 201051 Le Monde Paris -
Hungary: A kvetch about Pécs
22 January 201020 Hírszerzö Budapest -
Denmark: Muhammad caricaturist for Haiti
21 January 2010PresseuropJyllands-Posten -
Netherlands: Undercover with the extreme right
13 January 20101PresseuropHP/De Tijd -
Television: Bring on the Eurostars
8 January 20101 Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Frankfurt -
Netherlands: Rebuilding the forbidden city
6 January 2010De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
United Kingdom: Northern voices
5 January 2010Télérama Paris -
Press Freedom: Libel, a rich man's game
4 January 201019 1 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Danemark: Murder attempt on Mohammed cartoonist
4 January 2010PresseuropJyllands-Posten -
Literature: Max Havelaar, more than fair trade
30 December 200932 1 Trouw Amsterdam -
Visions of Europe (1): Why no-one loves her
28 December 200950 Cicero Berlin -
Romania: So farewell then, Cotidianul
23 December 2009PresseuropCotidianul -
Eastern Europe: The scourge of Ceausescu
17 December 200914 2 Jurnalul Naţional Bucharest -
Tower of Babel: When in Rome, do as Roman babies
11 December 20091 Cafebabel.com Paris -
Romania: Slow to write a new chapter
4 December 2009Libération Paris -
Tower of Babel: Santa Claus' evil twin
4 December 200939 Cafebabel.com Paris -
Religion: Is Islam good for Europe?
2 December 200919 1 El Mundo Madrid
The days of ostentatious architecture by star architects are at an end. Under the influence of the economic crisis, budgets have been pared down and vast projects have been set aside to be replaced by more modest buildings. A positive change, which will force architects to seek solutions to problems that they themselves have helped to create, argues director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), Ole Bouman. 
Even as the EU gets more and more talked about, the Brussels press corps is dwindling. Nowhere is this phenomenon more marked than amongst journalists from the new member states of Central and Eastern Europe. 
With a vocabulary of only 1500 words, “Globish” or “decaffeinated English” has become the world lingua franca. Author Robert McCrum charts the rise of this new dialect of the 21st century. 
Rainy Bergen has seen the likes of Röyksopp, Sondre Lerche and Kings of Convenience promote interest in the Norwegian music scene. In the shadow of Oslo, the port city cultivates its independence. 
On 29 March, the EU proposed a directive to block websites that show images of child abuse. A pointless and counterproductive step, argues a civil liberties advocate in the Guardian. 
As English continues to encroach upon the rest of the world, Paris cranks out laws and invents new French words to protect the language of Molière. In Berlin, the battle has only just begun, and it looks to be a tough fight because Germany long ago laid down its arms. 
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. 
The Ruhr region has seen the rise and fall of the coal industry in the space of 170 years. Now, during its stint as 2010 European Capital of Culture, it aims to complete its modernisation process. But its cities are running out of funds, reports Der Spiegel. 
The German Constitutional Court has ordered the immediate deletion of all private telecommunications data stockpiled since 2008 in the fight against terrorism. But whilst civil rights activists are whooping it up, the Süddeutsche Zeitung regrets that the judges missed a golden opportunity to quash the contentious EU counter-terrorism directive. 
How much control should we have over personal information on the web? A generation gap exists over attitudes towards privacy, remarks British columnist David Aaronovitch. 
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet has swept the board at France’s Césars, and looks set to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. One of its lessons is that in a fast-paced globalised world, the future belongs to those who can master two, or even three, languages. 
Journalist and former hostage in Iraq, Florence Aubenas spent six months immersed in the world of precarious employment. She wrote about her experiences in a book which reveals a little known aspect of the reality of life in Europe.
Flemish, Walloon, or Belgian? Or European, perhaps? To the writer Geert van Istendael, King Albert II’s subjects’ identity overload is not a handicap. On the contrary: it might even be an inspiration to other peoples in this changing world. 
Voted one of the year’s ten best European actors at the Berlinale, the Polish film actress is chalking up one high-profile part after another – in life as on the silver screen. Agata, daughter of European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, is making a first name for herself.
An Icelandic legislative initiative to protect the media and a create a safe haven for investigative journalists from all over the world: the project launched by the WikiLeaks website, which has gained support from several Icelandic MPs, could put an end to abusive libel actions. 
Initially thought to be a gimmick invented to occupy the Romanian commissioner Leonard Orban, newly arrived in Brussels in the wake of the 2007 enlargement, the portfolio of Multilinguism turned out to be surprisingly useful. Sadly, it will not be continued under the Barroso II Commission. 
She’s the new star of the German literary scene. At 17, Helene Hegemann has already beguiled the critics with a novel about disoriented and unrestrained youth. The only problem is she lifted whole passages off the web. But she admits it – and ushers in a new take on plagiarism and “authenticity”, writes the Berliner Zeitung. 
While too unrefined and exotic for the Flemish, and sometimes shown without subtitles, Turkish movies often draw bigger crowds in Belgium than even American or homegrown productions, thanks to a limited but avid audience. A report from De Standaard. 
It is not easy to celebrate a common past in a town that has been divided by history. However, in spite of tensions between Poles and Czechs, life in Cieszyn and Český Těšín is beginning to benefit from the border that separates the two towns. 
Brussels is the source of numerous poorly designed communications. On the Internet, and in brochures and logos, European institutions appear to be incapable of showing any imagination. A Dutch journalist makes the case for making more frequent calls to creative professionals, with interesting results. 
The success of the Tate Britain website has shown how the Internet can promote collections and stored works in major museums and attract a new generation of visitors. 
It's said that the French are the biggest moaners in Europe, but other European countries have a plethora of expressions for when it comes to letting off steam. A cafebabel.com round up. 
In the wake of a successful initiative by the New York Metropolitan Opera, national opera companies are increasingly relaying live performances to cinemas across Europe. Svenska Dagbladet waxes lyrical about the new technique which will boost accessibility to high culture.
Having played himself in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, the former star of Manchester United is now preparing to take on a leading role in a major Parisian theatre production. Le Monde presents a portrait of a legendary footballer who has found a new career as a sensitive and committed artist. 
The Hungarian city of Pécs, this year’s European Capital of Culture along with Istanbul and Essen, is having a hard time getting out from under Budapest’s long shadow. Is the country incapable of staging an event worthy of Europe’s interest? wonders the Hungarian news portal Hírszerzö. 
Time was when European tellies teemed with series and singers from other European nations. Nowadays, laments historian/journalist Nils Minkmar, even as European borders open up, European mindsets are narrowing. 
On the immense site of what was once the "Philips forbidden city," work is underway to build a new neighbourhood. The development plan, the largest of its kind in the Netherlands, will bring new life to a town that has always identified itself with the electronics group. 
Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds… in the United Kingdom, every northern town has its own particular accent. Stigmatized in the past, regional speech has now become a source of local pride. Even the BBC, a long-standing bastion of the linguistically correct, is now celebrating the phonetic diversity of British voices. 
UK courts harry the press more than almost anywhere else in the Western world. Big business and wily avengers avail themselves of ruthless lawyers, multi-million-pound lawsuits and nonsensical laws to stifle “bad press” – and not only in the English papers. A Spiegel report. 
Published in 1859, the book that gave its name to the fair trade movement remains a classic work of fiction. Notwithstanding, or perhaps, because of its avant-garde style and continued attempts to wrong-foot the reader, Max Havelaar's portrayal of colonial oppression in Indonesia still has lessons for modern readers. 
Disowned by voters, personified by pale politicians, and just plain unsexy: the EU has got an image problem. Philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger finds the real reasons for Euro-weariness in the gap between the reality and the myth of Europe.
For people living in the Eastern Bloc during the communist era, Radio Free Europe was one of the few alternative sources for news from the rest of the world. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the 1989 revolution, Romania prepares to pay homage to the station that vehemently criticised the Ceausescu regime. 
In order to attract tiny tots' attention, or prevent them from screaming for ever, adults go into form of verbal regression. The noises they make, however, are not the same depending on the country you're in. Cafebabel.com rounds up European baby phrases. 
In the run-up to elections on 6 December, Romanian presidential campaigns have focused on issues of corruption and the legacy of the communist state, concerns which seem very remote when viewed from abroad. Writer Julia Kristeva argues that only the country's culture is now sustaining the bond with Europe. 
Everywhere in Europe, Father Christmas has a dark side alter ego. Whether he's dressed in black, covered in carbuncles or dressed as an old witch, he has one aim only - terrorising kids who have been bad all year. Cafebabel.com rounds up. 
The Swiss referendum on minarets has re-ignited the debate about Islam in Europe. While Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan stresses Muslims’ cultural contributions to Europe, journalist Arcadi Espada argues that religion is not a desirable calling card in Europe.