Nomination in time of crisis
The members of Eurogroup have chosen Portugal's Vitor Constancio to be the next vice-president of the European Central Bank (ECB). "The current governor of the Banco de Portugal (the Portuguese central bank) was chosen from a list of candidates which included his opposite numbers in Luxembourg (Yves Mersch) and Belgium (Peter Praet). Constancio will replace the present Greek vice-president of the ECB, Lucas Papademos, when his mandate comes to an end in May," reports La Tribune. The Parisian business daily adds that the appointment "will likely pave the way for Germany's Bundesbank president, Axel Weber, to take over at the head of the ECB," when France's Jean-Claude Trichet "retires in 2011." Although some of Europe's finance ministers have insisted that the selection process for the vice-president of the ECB is completely independent, La Tribune explains that "traditionally the top jobs at the bank have reflected the desire to preserve a North-South balance." The daily believes that "the current economic crisis in Greece, Portugal and Spain must have weighed heavily on the eurozone finance ministers' decision."
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.