EU opens its books to spooks
To date, the CIA has been illegally sifting through European bank data. Very soon however, according to Spiegel-Online, “the EU will give the United States wide-ranging access to its citizens’ financial transactions.” The on-line version of the weekly news magazine explains a practice that has been common since September 11, 2001. At the time, the CIA exerted considerable pressure on the American offices of SWIFT, which is based in Belgium and has 8,000 associated banks worldwide. The financial services provider handles several million transactions every day and the CIA could therefore use millions of pieces of bank data for the fight against terrorism. SWIFT expanded its offices in Europe to be able to close down its American bureau at the end of 2009 and thus elude the CIA’s grasp. Spiegel-Online goes on to explain, however, that European Interior Ministers have come under such pressure from the United States that they wish to sign an agreement with Washington on 30th November, the day before the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, as MEPs – most of whom are hostile to these plans – would otherwise be able to veto it.
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.