EU slips through Kyoto loopholes
With a month left to run until the Copenhagen summit on climate change (COP 15), the European Union is close to achieving the 2012 objectives defined by the Kyoto Protocol, in particular thanks to the efforts of five of the 15 countries that were member states back when the agreement to cut CO2 emissions was signed in 1992, announces De Volkskrant. According to the latest figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA), the average reduction in emissions between 2008 and 2012 for the EU-15 will be 11.5% over the 1990 level, while the objective stipulated by Kyoto was 8%. But, as the Dutch daily explains, the devil is in the details and on closer inspection the figures are less encouraging: in fact, there will only be a 6.9% drop in emissions, and the shortfall will be made up for by accounting mechanisms that include credits for investment in renewable energy projects in other countries (2.2%), the trade in emissions quotas between EU member states (1.4%) and the planting of trees (1.0%).
In a time of crisis with high unemployment, young Lithuanians are following in the footsteps of their emigrant ancestors. Tens of thousands have left the country in search of a better life, mainly in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The weekly Veidas reports: 
The new Eurogroup meeting on February 9 is not enough to banish the spectre of a Greek bankruptcy. While Athens may largely be responsible for the crisis, the EU and its partners are not blameless themselves. La Stampa argues that their confused messages and the absence of any strategy have transformed a resolvable problem into an explosive chaos. 
Two camps, two theories, and two visions of France: 18 years after the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis, the precise role played by Paris is still the subject of heated debate, fueled by the findings of successive criminal investigations.