Presseurop |

Debate | Why Europe needs enemies (Hospodářské noviny, Prague)

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:56:45 +0100

Nothing better than an enemy to forge a common identity. But the adage of the nineteenth century doesn’t quite fit the current crisis. Only by changing their relationship to power can Europeans unite and overcome the crisis, says a Czech editorialist. (Article)

Hanging on | Editorial

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:20:58 +0100

Forced to resign as chief of the International Monetary Fund following his arrest in New York on charges of attempted rape, Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves his succession for the IMF post wide open. Since its creation in 1945, the position of Managing Director has been attributed to a European in exchange for appointing an American at the head of the World Bank. A gentlemen’s agreement that was justified by the economic weight of each bloc at the time but which, for some, is no longer relevant today given the growing importance of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and Europe’s political and economic decline. A chorus has thus arisen in favour of candidates from South Africa, Singapore as well as Israel and China, claiming that the time is right for new blood.

This is a legitimate claim because the emerging countries are under-represented in international organisations. At the IMF, for example, the BRICS account

for 11.06% of voting rights while representing 20% of global GDP. Europe accounts for 35.6% of voting rights and just over 30% of global GDP (the United States represents 16.08% of voting rights and nearly 30% of world GDP). If the voting rights/economic weight ratio is unfair to the BRICS, and if a reform is desirable, it is nevertheless true that Europe constitutes the most influential bloc within the IMF.

There is therefore no reason for Europe to give up the fight to maintain control of this very strategic post, especially at a time when several European countries have been or are still negotiating aid packages. But for this to happen Europe must, once again, speak with a single voice and propose the candidate that best defends its interests. If Europe wants to avoid having the IMF once again appear as the baleful guardian of free-market orthodoxy, it had best choose a candidate possessed of sensitivity and creativity so as to diminish, as much as possible, the bitter taste of the medicine it will have to administer.

(Editorial)

India | Protests in Delhi as EU defends Big Pharma

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:50:02 +0100

“Thousands march in India against EU trade deal,” headlines the EUobserver. With the EU on the verge of concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India, its largest trading partner, HIV-positive protesters took to the streets of New Delhi on 2 March concerned that the union is seeking to put an end to the production of affordable life-prolonging drugs. Since negotiations opened in 2007, the EU has pushed for a “data-exclusivity” clause which would protect intellectual property rights with respect to drugs. “European drug manufacturers complain that many of their patented products are frequently undercut by generics produced in India,” the Brussels website notes. Data exclusivity would mean that “clinical trial data filed by one company could not be relied upon by other companies,” critics argues. “As a result, the need for each firm to produce its own clinical trial tests would dramatically increase the price of medicines.” According to Anand Grover, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, "It would be a colossal mistake to introduce data exclusivity in India, when millions of people across the globe depend on the country as the pharmacy of the developing world.”

(News in brief)

Arend | War of the currencies | Cartoon (Het Financieele Dagblad, Amsterdam)

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:21:01 +0100

(Cartoon) (Cartoon)

Emerging economies | Globalisation 2.0: How the West lost it (La Repubblica, Rome)

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:38:30 +0100

As the West stews in stagnation, emerging economies are on the rise – and driving prices of raw materials and fuel to perilous highs. As they now set the pace of the global economy, Europe, stymied by cutbacks and unemployment, is in for hard times ahead. (Article)

Generic medicine | EC accused of doing Big Pharma's bidding

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:09:06 +0100

MSF (Médecins sans Frontières) has accused the European Commission of blocking the production of cheap generic drugs in the developing world, reports the Guardian. After the 2010 Doha declaration, generics companies could theoretically make cheap copies of patented HIV and other drugs. But according to the French NGO, the EC has recently been pushing for tougher patent rules in free trade negociations with India. “The EC wants to introduce ‘data exclusivity’,” the London daily reports, “which would stop a generic company registering a copy of a drug that does NOT have a patent for a period of time – usually five to eight years – unless it runs its own expensive and lengthy clinical trials.” Launching its Europe! Hands off our Medicine campaign on 7 October, MSF accused the Commission of caving in to multinational drug companies seeking to protect their drug monopolies, claiming that “millions of people across the developing world could see their source of affordable medicines dry up”. A Commission statement on the issue said that, “Patents are important, they need to be protected."

(News in brief)

European diplomacy | The Lady vanishes (Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw)

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:33:18 +0100

An efficient diplomatic service is not enough: EU's member states are still lacking a coherent common foreign policy, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. (Article)

Culture | Europe's mainstream is just a trickle (Rue89, Paris)

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:15:56 +0100

Having lagged behind an American cultural superpower for decades, the European mainstream now faces competition from the cultural products of China, India, and Brazil. A book published in France warns that Europe has been increasingly marginalized in the soft war to capture the popular imagination. (Article)

Belgium | Bombay on Scheldt (De Morgen, Brussels)

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:25:08 +0100

The Orthodox Jewish monopoly on the cutting and distribution of gem stones in the world diamond capital Antwerp is now a thing of the past. Since the 1980s, the industry has been increasingly dominated by the Indian Jain community: a change reflected by the transformation of the Flemish city. (Article)

Geopolitics | United, but not with Europe (Wprost, Warsaw)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:41:12 +0100

The good news is that from Asia to the Americas, an increasing number of countries are coming together to create unions inspired by the EU. And the bad news? In the long term these entities may overshadow the EU on the world stage, worries Polish weekly Wprost. (Article)

COP15 | Brussels cheerleads to the summit (La Stampa, Turin)

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:18:57 +0100

Even before the curtain rises on the Copenhagen Climate Conference on 7 December, the world is already warring over emissions targets. And Brussels is brandishing some fateful figures in its bid to lead the global crusade against greenhouse gases. (Article)

Organ Donations | Study calls for universal "presumed consent"

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:06:23 +0100

"Approximately 6,800 kidney transplants – or 10% of the total number of kidney transplants worldwide – are conducted for transplant tourists, who are willing to pay prices in excess of 100,000 euros per operation," reports La Vanguardia. The Catalan daily cites a pioneering study jointly undertaken by the Council of Europe and the United Nations, which should constitute a first step towards an international agreement to halt this phenomenon. According to the study, transplant tourism is largely the result of a lack of donors: in the EU alone, 4,000 patients die every year while waiting for organ transplants. "Those who have the means seek other solutions'" in Pakistan, India, China, the Philippines, Egypt and Colombia, notes the Global Observatory on Donation & Transplantation. Rafael Matesanz, the head of the Spanish national transplant organization and one of the authors of the report, suggests that the system of presumed consent, which has been established in Spain – where the rate of donations is the highest in the world – should be applied worldwide. This would "raise the number of donations worldwide from the current level of 100,000 organs per year to one million." The European Parliament has already voiced its support for the initiative.

(News in brief)

After Lisbon (3) | Museum Europe must go back to the lab (El País, Madrid)

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:00:37 +0100

If and when definitively ratified, the Lisbon treaty should give the EU the means to achieve its current political and economic agenda. But it will have to pool its forces and try new approaches if it is to hold its own against the growing powerhouses of the East, foresees Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím in El País. (Article)

European Union | Soft power no match for hard reality (El País, Madrid)

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:12:23 +0100

While defence budgets have continued to rise in China, Russia, the United States and India, military spending in the EU has remained stagnant over the last ten years. For El País, Europe's global influence is now based on soft power, which cannot adequately replace the hard power of a real common defence policy. (Article)

Immigration | Wilkommen to Romania (Le Monde, Paris)

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:44:24 +0100

Since becoming a member of the EU, Romania has attracted waves of African, Indian, Afghan and Iraqi immigrants. Hailing from Somalia, Kasim thought he was on his way to Germany when unscrupulous traffickers dumped him deep in the heart of the Romanian countryside... (Article)

Africa | Asia leaps as Europe lags (Il Sole-24 Ore, Milan)

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:56:11 +0100

The European Union used to be the major partner for African governments, but it has increasingly lost ground to China, Russia and India, which now leads the race to take advantage of the continent's precious resources. (Article)

Health | Patently cruel (De Volkskrant, Amsterdam)

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:09:19 +0100

European customs often seize medicines bound for developing countries on the basis of suspected violation of patent rights. Humanitarian organisations denounce this practice which, they argue, benefits pharmaceutical companies to the detriment of the world's poor. (Article)