Politics
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8 February 2012PresseuropRomânia libera, Jurnalul Naţional, Adevărul, Revista 22
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Finland
Euroscepticism survives
8 February 20122PresseuropHelsingin Sanomat -
Romania
A spy in government
7 February 2012PresseuropAdevărul -
France-Germany
Merkel seeks to save marriage of convenience
7 February 2012PresseuropLibération, Le Figaro, Le Monde & 2 others -
Institutions
Maastricht 20 years on: Eurocrat blues
6 February 201210Le Temps Geneva -
Slovakia
New wave of “Gorilla” demonstrations
6 February 2012PresseuropSME -
2 February 201214PresseuropLe Monde, Le Figaro, La Croix, Libération
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2 February 2012PresseuropNépszava
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Fiscal treaty
Ireland begins bitter referendum debate
1 February 20123PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Slovakia
A Gorilla tearing down the system
1 February 20127Respekt Prague -
European Council
The Don Quixotes of Brussels
31 January 201248El País Madrid -
European Council
Angela Merkel has gone too far
31 January 201214PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
Fiscal compact
Prague keeps its distance
31 January 2012PresseuropHospodářské noviny -
EU Summit
Poland not 100% happy
31 January 2012PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna -
Eurozone crisis
No-one wants a German budget commissar
30 January 201261PresseuropPúblico, Le Monde, Ta Nea & 2 others -
Italy
Relax, Germans!
30 January 201223Die Zeit Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis
Save the euro – get rid of Germany
27 January 2012119The Times London -
26 January 201221Il Fatto Quotidiano Rome
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Romania
Baconschi, first head to roll
25 January 2012PresseuropAdevărul -
24 January 2012PresseuropDie Tageszeitung
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Croatia
A small “yes” to EU
23 January 20122PresseuropNovi List, Slobodna Dalmacija, Jutarnji List -
Central Europe
Vienna-Budapest, a journey into the past
23 January 201216Le Monde Paris -
23 January 20124PresseuropFinancial Times
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20 January 201215Tportal Zagreb
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Hungary
Orbán revolution goes bust
20 January 20129Respekt Prague -
19 January 20122România libera Bucharest
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Hungary-EU
Viktor Orbán dodges MEPs questions
19 January 2012PresseuropNépszava -
European Parliament
Hurricane Schulz replaces Buzek the Calm
18 January 20123PresseuropDer Spiegel, Financial Times Deutschland, Wprost, Gazeta Wyborcza -
Hungary-EU
Brussels starts power struggle with Orbán
18 January 20128PresseuropNépszabadság, Magyar Nemzet, Népszava -
European Union
Myth of equality at an end
17 January 2012149Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
16 January 20121PresseuropAdevărul
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13 January 2012PresseuropPolska The Times, Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita
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12 January 201217Népszabadság Budapest
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Arms industry
Greece still splashes out billions on defence
11 January 201234Die Zeit Hamburg -
Debt crisis
Merkozy struggles to end austerity
10 January 201214PresseuropPresseurop -
9 January 2012PresseuropMagyar Hírlap
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Hungary
Orbán increasingly isolated
6 January 20129Presseurop -
5 January 201231La Stampa Turin
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European Union
Hungary is our business too
4 January 201239Le Monde Paris -
Looking Ahead
2012 cannot be worse than 2011
3 January 201214Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Hungary
Let us deal with Orbán
3 January 20129Heti Világgazdaság Budapest -
3 January 20122PresseuropHandelsblatt
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European Council
Little Denmark faces high-stakes EU Presidency
2 January 20126Politiken Copenhagen -
Debt crisis
Does doom await in 2012?
2 January 201263El País Madrid -
Employment
Germany welcomes working immigrants
23 December 20114PresseuropHandelsblatt -
Romania
Revolution? What revolution?
21 December 20119Jurnalul Naţional Bucharest -
Hungary
Tug of war over media law
21 December 20111PresseuropPresseurop -
Climate change
EP reassesses emissions market
21 December 20112PresseuropEl País -
Czech Republic
In Prague, Europe is often far away
20 December 20116Lidové noviny Prague -
Schengen
Liechtenstein takes down its borders
20 December 20111PresseuropVolksblatt
In appointing the head of the secret service to lead the government, President Băsescu is attempting to avoid early general elections. But, as the Romanian press points out, the controversial Mr Ungureanu is perhaps not the politician that is best equipped to put an end to protests against austerity and the country’s political class. 
With 80 days left to run before the first round of French presidential elections, the German Chancellor has joined the campaign alongside her most precious ally in Europe, Nicolas Sarkozy — an initiative judged risky on both sides of the Rhine. 
The European Commission and its civil servants gained unprecedented powers with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on February 7 1992. Two decades later, the economy’s primacy over politics and the advent of the crisis has destroyed their dreams and turned them into scapegoats. 
A probable candidate for re-election, the French President seems intent on proposing an economic project calqued on the German model — a strategy which has surprised the French press. 
Explosive and mysterious, a file named “Gorilla” contains evidence of corruption in Slovakia’s political and economic elite. Two months away from early parliamentary elections, who stands to benefit from the revelations? 
At best, the measures adopted at the January 30 summit – the fiscal treaty and the economic growth plan – are meant, at best, to overcome the mistakes of the past year and a half, says columnist Xavier Vidal-Folch. At worst, they’re part of a recurring sham.
The idea of pinning the second Greek bail-out on the acceptance by Athens of supervision by a European budget commissioner, a German proposal unveiled on the eve of the January 30 European Council meeting, is nothing less than a violation of state sovereignty, according to the European press. 
Italy has long cursed Germany as a know-it-all, and yet respects it as the head of the class. With the arrival of the very proper Mr Monti this is changing, and Berlin will have to get used to some lessons from Rome. 
By foisting fiscal austerity on its Eurozone partners while stubbornly refusing an enhanced role for the ECB, and greater mutual support on national debt, Germany is a greater hindrance than a help to the single currency, argues Anatole Kaletsky. 
Austerity is to be followed by deregulation. Mario Monti has launched “Phase two” of his anti-crisis programme: a vast plan to open protected sectors of the economy, like taxis and road transport, to competition. An Italian economist welcomes the change, but warns that it is not without risks. 
On 22 January, Croats voted in favour of ratifying the Treaty of Accession to the EU, prompting a sigh of relief in Brussels. The record voter abstention rate, however, must give cause for concern, notes the Croatian press. 
Heirs to the Hapsburg Empire, Austria and Hungary have something else in common: an ambiguous relationship with history and a tendency to tolerate political excesses. Ten years after European sanctions against Vienna, why does the Budapest seem to be stuck in the 1930s? 
On January 22, Croatia must ratify by referendum the Treaty of Accession to the EU. But the campaign, coming just as the country is about to enter a Europe in crisis, has been marked by second thoughts and a new nationalist rhetoric. 
Leading a country heavily in debt, under pressure from the IMF and threatened with prosecution by the EU, the Hungarian Prime Minister is now facing an organised opposition. Feeling poorer every day, Hungarians have lost their faith in the PM's nationalist prescriptions. 
Thousands of people from all walks of life have been demonstrating all week in Bucharest as well as all over the country against both austerity measures and a political system gangrened by corruption. It is about time that the government took their complaints seriously, warns Romanian sociologist Mircea Kivu. 
The election of Martin Schulz as new president will pave the way for a change of atmosphere in the European Parliament. In the wake of the reign of the consensus-building Pole, Jerzy Buzek, the German socialist is intent on shaking up institutions in Brussels. 
After quibbling for several weeks, the European Commission launched three legal actions against the Hungarian government. But who will back down first – Budapest or Brussels? The Hungarian press is not expecting any great changes. 
Whether it’s the planned European treaty, the S&P downgrade of nine eurozones states or reprimands issued to Hungary, recent events in the EU have highlighted how powerful countries are now imposing their law on their smaller neighbours. Polish columnist Jacek Żkowski aims to set the record straight. 
By threatening Budapest with financial sanctions and infringement proceedings if the Hungarian government fails to change its policies on the economy and the judiciary, the EU seems to have begun a process that would allow it to get rid of Hungary’s Prime Minister, as it got rid of Berlusconi and Papandreou. But it won’t be that easy. 
Frigates, tanks and submarines: Greece may be teetering on the brink, but the bite of austerity hasn’t come near its military. And Germany is profiting from it. 
The reinforcement of the executive branch of government and the weakening of checks and balances has been criticised by newspapers in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe at a moment when the country has been struck by a financial crisis that is steadily worsening as investors lose confidence in Budapest. 
To understand the current Hungarian government’s withdrawal into nationalism and identity, one must look back into the history of the country, argues an expert in Hungarian literature: particularly into the fragility of its bourgeoisie and the frustrations born of military defeats. 
The EU should not remain indifferent to PM Viktor Orbán’s drift towards authoritarian nationalism. As a community based on democratic as well as economic values, it ought to exert pressure on Budapest to keep the Hungarian government on the right path, argues Le Monde. 
2011 was such a bad year for Europe that 2012 can only be an improvement. However, Gazeta Wyborcza columnist Jacek Pawlicki points out that the European Union is now threatened by social tensions prompted by measures that enabled it to survive an unprecedented crisis. 
Protests against the Hungarian prime minister, accused of a drift towards authoritarianism, are growing in Budapest. But while the international community is also starting to respond, the protests must avoid relying on foreign intervention, argues philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás. 
At the height of the debt crisis, a small country, which is not a member of the Eurozone, has taken on the EU’s six monthly rotating presidency. Danish daily Politiken argues that Copenhagen should take advantage of its marginal status in adopting the role of mediator for a community that is tearing itself apart. 
In the wake of a terrible year in 2011, the worst may be yet to come warns political analyst José Ignacio Torreblanca. The crisis could force EU member states to choose between Greece and Great Britain. And once again, everything will be decided in Germany. 
For most people in post-communist Europe, December is the month to commemorate the fall of the communist regimes. In Romania, the fall has become a story that a society living in a world of cheap illusions tells itself. 
Twenty years after the "return to Europe" championed by former President Václav Havel, who died on December 18, the debate about the Czech Republic's relationship with the EU is dominated by two political camps that are both devoid of real ideas about the union's future.