Debates
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11 January 2012PresseuropDie Tageszeitung
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Press review
Franco-Turkish spat over genocide law
23 December 201113PresseuropYeni Şafak, Milliyet, Zaman & 3 others -
Germany
Habermas stokes debate on Europe
9 November 20117PresseuropFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -
7 November 20113PresseuropSME
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17 October 201110Le Monde Paris
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Czech Republic – Netherlands
Cannabis: Medicine or hard drug?
6 October 20111PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
28 August 201117Evenimentul zilei Bucharest
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Internet
We need a Euro-Google
9 August 20113Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Norway and after
Populism – handle with care
26 July 20116Trouw Amsterdam -
26 July 2011PresseuropThe Times of Malta
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18 July 20112El País Madrid
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8 July 20111PresseuropNewsweek Polska
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Iceland
A new constitution, via Facebook
4 July 20112Sydsvenskan Malmö -
29 June 20111El País Madrid
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European Union
Back to the nation
8 June 201124Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
3 June 20114PresseuropLibération
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Political fiction
Onwards to Europe 2.0
30 May 20117Die Welt Berlin -
United Kingdom
Minister blunders on rape question
19 May 2011PresseuropThe Independent -
Netherlands
European rabbis defend ritual slaughter
13 April 20111PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Opinion
Burqa ban — a false move
11 April 20119The Independent London -
Burqa ban
Islam in Europe – a real problem
11 April 20112Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
IDEAS
The West, past its best
15 March 20111PresseuropCourrier international -
Poland/Germany
Bundestag reopens World War 2 wounds
15 February 2011PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Multiculturalism
Tolerance doesn't mean you say nothing
11 February 20111Spiked London -
United Kingdom
Multiculturalism takes another hit
7 February 20112Presseurop -
Baltic states
Where minorites must hold their tongue
6 January 20114De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Integration
In the eighth circle of hell
3 January 20114Die Tageszeitung Berlin -
Germany
The immigration debate begins
7 December 20101PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
Social issues
The counterproductive war on smokers
6 December 20109Revue Politika Brno -
Diplomacy
Not such wicked leaks
2 December 201011Libération Paris -
Minorities
My week as a gypsy
10 November 20102Adevărul Bucharest -
Germany
Diplomacy and the Shoah
29 October 2010PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
Germany
Anti-atomic groups nuke Merkel
20 September 2010PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
European integration
I come not to bury the EU, but to save it
7 September 2010PresseuropIl Sole-24 Ore -
European integration
The union needs leaders
30 August 20102Trouw Amsterdam -
Germany
Now Sarrazin baits the Jews
30 August 2010PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
Immigration
Social democrat's rant rocks Germany
27 August 20101PresseuropFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -
27 August 20101PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza
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Secularism
For the free movement of gods
13 August 20102Die Zeit Hamburg -
Immigration
Why Europe needs semi-citizens
2 August 20101Corriere della Sera Milan -
22 July 20103PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza
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Religion and State
Burqa, the cross we must bear
21 July 201014Der Standard Vienna -
8 July 2010PresseuropThe Times of Malta
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Germany
Smoking ban divides country
6 July 2010PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
6 July 2010PresseuropLa Vanguardia
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25 June 2010Fokus Stockholm
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Civil liberties
Big Brussels is watching you
9 June 2010De Standaard Brussels -
Italy / Netherlands
Dutch euthanasia directive doesn’t travel
4 June 20102PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Middle East
Author may ban Hebrew editions of his work
3 June 2010PresseuropDagens Nyheter -
31 May 20101PresseuropNew Statesman
The French parliament’s vote which approved a private member’s bill making it a crime to negate the Armenian genocide has provoked an angry response from Ankara. The reaction to the initiative in the French press has been largely negative, while the Turkish media is much more outspoken. 
Exactly 50 years ago today, between 100 and 200 Algerians, who were taking part in a peaceful demonstration, were murdered by Paris police. After decades of official cover-up, the collective memory of the events of 17 October 1961 is finally being restored. 
Although many commentators have called for it to be established, the United States of Europe remains a chimera, which is incompatible with the history and plurality of cultures on our continent, argues Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu. 
What you can look up, you needn’t commit to memory. This old maxim is one that drives Google's business today. But the Internet revolution is still in its infancy, and soon the material of our everyday lives could be fodder for search engines. We should be cautious about what we hand over, warns FAZ. 
Although Anders Breivik was solely responsible for the atrocities in Norway, his far-fetched ideas clearly owe much to a culture of populism. A Dutch historian argues that the events which took place on 22 July ought to be considered in the context of political trends in Europe.
75 years after Franco's coup against the young Spanish republic and the start of a bloody civil war, Spain has yet to write a definitive and undisputed history of the period. For El Pais, part of the right still cultivates a selective forgetfulness. 
Begun after the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent fall of the government under popular pressure, Iceland’s citizen revolution continues. The most recent example is that all internet users are called upon to draft the country’s next constitution. 
In having accepted to reopen the debate on transparency and property held by those in public office, it looks as if Spain's politicians are responding to some of the demands made by the Angry Ones movement. But if they're to build on these first successes, protestors must elaborate a coherent politcal project. 
The European Union was the best thing that could have happened to the continent. But over the years it has grown into a demon, uncontrollable and impossible to throw out of office. To avoid collapse, there is only one road open: back to the nation. And back to democracy. 
Forget the nation-state: Europe would be much better off if it were fundamentally reorganised – into powerful regions in the north and the Alps and picturesque bankrupts in the south 
Wearing the burqa in public places is now forbidden in France. For the Independent, the new law is a piece of electioneering from an embattled Nicolas Sarkozy, and will worsen the condition of Muslims in Europe. 
The debate about secularism organised in France by the ruling right-wing UMP party has been decried by the Muslim community as a brutal attack on Islam, while the Left has seen it as a disguised attempt to curry favour with the supporters of the National Front. But no debate at all is a victory for extremism, argues a Polish editorialist. 
First Merkel, then Cameron, now Sarkozy. Across Europe, multiculturalism and its legacy are in the dock. But according to sociologist Frank Furedi, multiculturalism is divisive because it promotes a watered down version of tolerance. 
A few months after Angela Merkel controversially argued that the multicultural society in Germany had “utterly failed”, David Cameron’s 5 February speech echoing the Chancellor’s sentiments has revived the debate about national identity in the British press. 
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. 
Thilo Sarrazin's controversial book on the dumbing down of Germany has ignited the debate on immigration. Russian emigré writer Wladimir Kaminer now joins the fray to warn against the dangerous habit of dividing society up into the strong and weak, productive and non-productive. Like it or not, he says, we stand or fall together. 
The European Commission is preparing a general ban on smoking in public areas. However, a Czech legal expert argues that the desire to legislate to improve public health could ultimately undermine civil liberties. 
For the celebrated novelist and intellectual Umberto Eco, the Wikileaks affair or "Cablegate" not only shows up the hypocrisy that governs relations between states, citizens and the press, but also presages a return to more archaic forms of communication. 
What’s life like for the Roma in Romania? To find out, an Adevărul journalist dressed up as a gypsy for a week. He didn’t experience any direct discrimination, just general contempt. 
While the EU is slogging knee-deep through an economic crisis and a general state of political malaise, its leaders seem to lack the will to find a solution. Political scientist Rob de Wijk advises them to reverse this tendency in order to keep the Union from falling further into the abyss. 
Confronted by a multiplicity of religions and their symbols, most states choose to forbid them. But in doing so, they are heading toward an impasse, claims Die Zeit while pleading for tolerance and pluralism. 
Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal to revoke the citizenship of naturalised felons has catapulted the immigration issue back onto the political agenda. Even as governments seek to adjust their legislation to an ever-changing situation, the EU ought to extend European citizenship to immigrants so as to make up for the inadequacies of the existing system. 
The ban on the burqa in Belgium and France, now spreading to Spain, the UK, and even to universities in Egypt and Syria, points up the hypocrisy and double standards of Western Christian culture, writes German philosopher Andrea Roedig. If the burqa is an instrument of oppression, isn’t the cross we worship really a morbid fascination with torture? 
A long-standing pioneer in the field of gender equality, Sweden appears to have lost its enthusiasm for social reforms of benefit to women. None of the country's major political parties has tabled concrete proposals on the issue in the run-up to general elections this autumn. 
The European Union believes that the high technology monitoring of its citizens' movements is justified by the need to ensure their security. But not everyone is convinced that increased surveillance will act as a safeguard. Activists, like lawyer Raf Jespers, argue that technology is already violating the fundamental right to privacy.