Poland
Dirty business
17 August 2010
Presseurop
Gazeta Wyborcza 
Gazeta Wyborcza, 17 August 2010
"Poland is throwing away thousands of euros a day " bemoans Gazeta Wyborcza. For a month now the EU has been fining Poland 40,000 euros a day for failing to make good on its accession promise to improve its waste management system. This year Poland’s use of landfill was supposed to drop by a fourth but it has only decreased by 8%. To make matters worse, some 40 % of waste is dumped illegally, the Warsaw daily estimates. Poland may still avoid paying the fine, though, if it proves by January 2011 that it will eventually comply.
The game has gone on for nearly two years: Athens pretends to comply with the demands of its creditors and partners, and they pretend to believe in Greece’s commitments. As the spectre of default comes nearer, however, the Greek bluff cannot go on much longer, writes an El Mundo editorialist. 
Asserting national values is central to the political project of the Hungarian PM. Since the start of the year, fifteen paintings, specially commissioned for an exhibition in the Castle of Buda, have been putting this ambition on show. 
Since Portugal has been subjected to an austerity regimen by the EU/ECB/IMF troika, Portuguese consumers have adapted their habits. The crisis is pushing consumers to save but also to be more creative.