Sunday links (02.01.2011) and A Happy New Year!

Roma

Der Spiegel thinks that the EU Presidency will be a test for tolerance in Hungary (link).

The youth, the job and the future of democracy

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano thinks that ‘without opportunities for the youth democracy is in danger’ (link). And the NYT writes about the lack of jobs in the EU for young people: ‘experts warn of volatility in state finances and the broader society as the most highly educated generation in the history of the Mediterranean hits one of its worst job markets’ (link).

Dictatorship

Belarus asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to leave the country ‘after its election monitors accused the government of fraud in the presidential election last month’ (link).

(In)tolerance / religion

Large support for the blasphemy law in In Islamabad, Pakistan – where ‘thousands of people took to the streets, and forced businesses to close, to head off any change in the country’s blasphemy law, which rights groups say has been used to persecute minorities, especially Christians’. For comparison, ‘protest rallies by rights activists have been ineffective and relatively small’ (link).

The Economist raises important questions about recent developments in the Diyanet, ‘Turkey’s state-run religious-affairs directorate’, which seems less independent and closer to Islamic groups (link).

And an article about the failed attempt to blow up Stockholm shoppers at Christmas time. The terrorist was an Islamist raised in Sweden (link).

EU

Yesterday, Estonia joined the Euro. The Economist‘s blogger Charlemagne sees this moment as ‘a demonstration of faith in the single currency’, in spite of the doubts expressed last year regarding the future of the Euro (link). On the other hand, in Slovakia ‘euro-enthusiasm is ebbing fast’ (link).

Sarkozy responds to Marine Le Pen (The National Front): the French government is dedicated to protectionism, secularism and security (link).

The 10 days of Europe

Presseurop is hosting a series of editorials on the history and future of the European Union. The main idea could be that of the columnist Eric Maurice: ‘In short, it has been a chaotic year for Europe, which is struggling to compete with a developing world that may be less democratic but is consistently more dynamic. And it has been a difficult twelve months for the EU, which appears destined to play an increasingly marginal role in international affairs‘ (link). Among the invited writers are:

Fernando Savater (Spain): ‘I still believe a worthwhile Europe is one that represents and defends its citizens, not its turf. One that protects political rights (and duties, of course) and legal safeguards, rather than privileges and those hollow traditions used to conceal them from outsiders. A Europe that maintains the integrity of existing democratic, constitutional states against the threat of divisive ethnic demands, which are invariably retrograde and xenophobic. A Europe of freedom and solidarity, not a continent closed to those knocking at its gates to escape political persecution or economic necessity. An openminded, cooperative, helpful and compassionate Europe, not one jealously guarding its benefits. A Europe of rational hospitality.’ (link).

Paweł Świeboda (Poland): ‘The current juncture is a critical one, not because the economy is in trouble, but because being together has lost its lustre. Though it might remain the perfectly rational option, that spark of excitement is gone’ (link).

Thomas Brussig (Germany): ‘I’m not at all at peace with Europe. I first heard the term “the house of Europe” used by Mikhail Gorbachev, in the second half of the 1980s. Gorbachev sacrificed the Soviet empire to that idea. He released the Eastern Bloc from the Soviet realm, and agreed to German reunification as well as NATO’s eastward enlargement. The Soviet Union fell apart, and three former Soviet republics joined the EU. But when the rest of the former Soviet Union came knocking at the door to the house of Europe, it was slammed shut in their face’ (link).

Philippe Perchoc (France): ‘It is a pity because Europe is virtually alone in perceiving herself as ugly. Elsewhere in the world, numerous intellectuals speak of their admiration for the European model and the role this continent should play in world governance. Here in Europe, our inward-looking lethargy has blocked all progress. China, India, the United States and Africa have confidence in their future, while Europe appears to be paralysed by fear. It is almost as if she regretted her diminutive former self and the cosseted existence she enjoyed under the kindly protection of Uncle Sam while she played in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.’ (link)

Mircea Vasilescu (Romania): ‘Europe has developed a subtle grammar of negotiation which in today’s unpredictable and agitated world should be commended. Bringing together states that are still separated by long-standing differences, and establishing conditions in which they are impelled to communicate and plan for the future is in my view one of the greatest accomplishments of the European project.’ (link)

Tim Parks (UK/Italy): ‘To talk about the future of Europe is to risk serious depression’ (link)

Sunday links (26.12.2010)

Asylum

UNHCR reports an increase in flight of Iraqi Christians; it also underlines its ‘dismay’ relative to states like Sweden who practice forced returns to third countries that are not considered safe (link).

Keep an eye on the Ivory Coast! Civil war may be so close… (link).

Discrimination

Problems in Germany with bi-cultural divorces: ‘thousands of bi-national couples get a divorce. But arrangements for granting custody of the children are complicated because the legal system routinely favours the German parent. Recently adopted European regulations may simplify matters’ (link).

The ‘Hungarian Problem’

The new Hungarian law seems to amount to a “media constitution”; it has been heavily criticized by EU institutions (link)l; Germany also criticized it (link). The NGO Reporters Without Borders said ‘the creation of a new Hungarian media authority with powers to sanction national press outlets is the latest sign of a worrying trend in the wider EU’ (link). But Hungary is not worried: economic, not political problems, will dominate its EU agenda next year (link). However, the columnist of Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) is asking a worried rhetorical question: ‘Budapest, where are you going?’ (link).

EU

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen zone is becoming more and more controversial: France and Berlin strongly believe that the accession, ‘which had been scheduled for March 2011, should now be postponed’ (link); however, while Romania seems to resign itself to accepting this decision (some politicians considering that the question is not ‘whether’, but rather ‘how long’ Romania’s accession will be postponed) (link), Bulgaria defies Paris and Berlin and still believes in its chances for March 2011 (link).

Jobs

European Alternatives seeks journalists and editors for their website (link).

Pirates

Netizens are mobilizing against a Spanish law ‘under which websites providing access to copyright-protected content could be closed down’ (link).

Sunday links (19.12.2010)

Immigration

Migration Information Source publishes a Spotlight which ‘seeks to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions on the subject of immigration and immigrant integration’ in the USA (link).

State of emergency in Italy declared because of a new wave of irregular migrants (link). However, the Italian Constitutional Court struck down an article from the ‘security package’, referring to the punishment of immigrants who do not leave Italy after they have received the expulsion order (link).

Asylum

‘UNHCR urges EU and FRONTEX to ensure access to asylum procedures, amid sharp drop in arrivals via the Mediterranean’ (link).

The Czech Republic: erection-measurement machine for discovering false asylum seekers!!!! (link).

UNHCR issued its recommendations for incoming Hungarian EU Presidency (link).

Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights slams Irish abortion law (link; link2).

The US Senate ‘struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, bringing to a close a 17-year struggle over a policy that forced thousands of Americans from the ranks and caused others to keep secret their sexual orientation’ (link).

Discrimination

European Court of Justice allowed the Netherlands to ban weed-smoking for foreigners while keeping it legal for the Dutch (link).

Paris: around 200 persons protested against the organization of an anti-Islamic forum (link).

Gender

Are European women obliged to choose between work and family? (link).

Religion

According to the NYT, Poland, ‘the bastion of religion’, experiences ‘rise in secularism’ (link).

EU

Flemish separatist De Wever: ‘Belgium has no future!’ (link).

Montenegro is a new candidate country, but according to The Economist it is far from joining the EU (link).

Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s Prime Minister, is accused of murder by Council of Europe (link).

Hungary: according to The Economist, ‘there is growing alarm about the increasing centralisation of power under the right-wing Fidesz government led by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s pugnacious prime minister’ (link).

Bosnian and Albanian citizens can now move across European Union (link).

Sunday links (12.12.2010)

Immigration

Tageszeitung has a ‘special issue on immigration and what it means “to be German” today.’ (link). Some 50 authors responded to the invitation. Read their contributions in German here.

Immigrant investors

To those who are still criticizing capitalism and neo-liberalism for transforming workers in a new type of slaves, I dedicate this article in Der Spiegel which tackles the way communists treat African workers…(link).

Extremism

Germany – ‘It is a German tradition that the president becomes an honorary godparent to the seventh child born to any family. But the custom has proved awkward for President Christian Wulff after he became godfather to a baby born into a neo-Nazi family.’ (link)

Iranian woman Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (sentenced to death by stoning for adultery) is still in prison (link).

EU

France really wants to block Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen zone. And it seems it will succeed (link).

Presseurop translates a strange article from a Polish newspaper, according to which Central Europe must pass over the wounds of the last century, in order to have a chance to avoid being stuck again between Germany and Russia, when EU and NATO will be history… (link).

EU is negotiating with the United States for including Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Cyprus in the Visa Waiver program. If it succeeds, it would be a major success of the European diplomacy as a whole – but I am deeply pessimistic about Americans’ will in considering such a proposal. However, it’s a bit strange for the EU to claim that Romania and Bulgaria are not safe enough in order to enter the Schengen zone, but safe enough to be included into the Visa Waiver program (link).

Fatmir Besimi, Macedonia’s Minister of Economy, is lobbying for Western Balkans’ integration in the EU (link).

The Economist publishes an excellent article about ‘Disappointing Romania’ (link).

Freedom of press / freedom of speech

An interesting article about the state of the media in Hungary and Bulgaria here.

Education / Equality of opportunity

According to The Guardian, ‘A bleak portrait of racial and social exclusion at Oxford and Cambridge has been shown in official data which shows that more than 20 Oxbridge colleges made no offers to black candidates for undergraduate courses last year and one Oxford college has not admitted a single black student in five years.’ Moreover, ‘Oxford’s social profile is 89% upper- and middle-class, while 87.6% of the Cambridge student body is drawn from the top three socioeconomic groups. The average for British universities is 64.5%, according to the admissions body Ucas.’ (link)

French educational system is rated below the average among the OECD countries, according to the international program PISA 2009 (link).

Old and interesting stuff on Jewish feeling towards Israel

Are liberal Jews anti-Semitic? What is Jewish anti-Semitism? A very good piece in The New York Times (link).

Many Jews around the world are gradually ceasing to regard Israel as a focal point. An excellent article titled ‘Second thoughts about the Promise Land’ in The Economist (link).

Others

19 countries decline being present to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Friday (10 December). EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton also declined. Is Chinese diplomacy getting stronger? (link).

Death penalty under scrutiny in Texas, the state with the most numerous death sentences (link).

Sunday links (05.12.2010)

Immigration

Migration Information Source publishes ‘The Top 10 Migration Issues of 2010′ (link).

In the first day of the EU-Africa summit (hosted in Tripoli, Libya on Monday 29 November), Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi ‘demanded that “Christian, white” Europe lend more financial support for his efforts to combat irregular emigration to Europe. Otherwise it risked becoming “black”, he said’ (link).

Internal migration can also cause problems: according to the NYT, ‘new arrivals strain India’s cities to breaking point’ (link).

Le Temps publishes a reportage about the biggest Chinese community in Italy, lodged in Prato; the focus is on the textile industry, and the conclusion is that very poor quality clothes made by the Chinese workers receive celebrated Italian labels, to local industries’ discontent (link).

Multiculturalism / Integration

Leading rabbi says Europe risks being ‘overrun’ by Islam: ‘Speaking to journalists at a meeting in Jerusalem on Friday (26 November), Rabbi Rosen, the director of inter-religious affairs at the Washington-based American Jewish Congress, said that a predominantly secular and liberal Western European society is under threat from the rapid growth of Islamic communities which do not want to integrate with their neighbours. “I am against building walls. My humanity is my most important component. But Western society very clearly doesn’t have a strong identity. I would like Christians in Europe to become more Christian … those who do not have a strong identity are easily overrun by those who do,” the rabbi warned’ (link).

Discrimination

Te Swiss voted for the proposal advanced by by right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), according to which convicted foreigners must be kicked out of the country. ‘The SVP has become Switzerland’s biggest political movement by tapping growing fears about immigration. It was behind the vote a year ago to ban the construction of new minarets in a decision that drew international criticism’ (link1; link2).

Some 100 Roma people protested in Bucharest against the proposal advanced by a MP to officially change the name of this minority into ‘gypsy’ (the proposal has also been accepted by the Romanian Academy) (link). Representatives of various NGOs declared that they will inform American President Obama about this initiative, which would allegedly amount to legalization of the pejorative notion ‘nigger’ (link).

The Kurdish region in Turkey: religious freedom and reconciliation with the Christian community, or continuous discrimination? (link).

Legal counselor Pietro Giovannoni (Padova, Italy), member of the far-right party ‘Lega Nord’ declared that the traditional Sant’Antonio marathon will not receive public founds anymore. The reason is that ‘the winner are always African athletes or extra-communitarians’ (link).

EU

Der Spiegel thinks that a come back to the Deutsche Mark (if the Euro zone will break up) would have disastrous consequences for Germany (link).

Presseurop quotes the Moldovan newspaper Timpul – according to which, after the recent elections, the country has only two alternatives: ‘”a betrayal” by the country’s Liberal Democratic Party, whose 31 MPs may quit the AEI [Alliance for European Integration] to join forces with the communists, or yet another election’ (link).

Presseurop‘s editorial says Russia needs to come closer to the European Union. I would have thought that, for better or for worse, actually European Union is coming closer to Russia. However, whatever the real move might be, it’s better to have Russia, politically and economically, closer to the EU than to China (link).

Sunday links (28.11.2010)

Immigration

Problems in the Somali refugees community in the USA: integration raises the same old problems (link).

Belgium: police interrogates members of Muslim community in order to dismantle terrorist threats (link).

Besides Frontex, European Union has created another program – called Eurosur – for border surveillance (link).

German Politicians urge German Muslims to ‘keep an eye out for fanatics’ (link).

Extremism / xenophobia

Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy, has been liberated; however, Pakistan will not renounce the blasphemy law (link).

An older article in Der Spiegel writes about Budapest as being ‘Europe’s capital of anti-Semitism’. After living for three years in Budapest, I would say this is an unnecessary exaggeration (link).

Toleration

Der Spiegel publishes an interview with gay theologian David Berger, according to which ‘a large proportion of Catholic clerics and trainee priests are homosexual’ (link).

European Parliament voted on mutual recognition of existing same-sex unions (link).

EU

After the Hungarian example, a Romanian liberal MP, Puiu Hasotti, said that the Constitution must limit the role of the Constitutional Court; he even doubts that Romania needs a Constitutional Court (link).

Presseurop notes that Ukraine is closer to enter the EU’s Visa waiver program – however, it will not get free trade (link).

EUobserver.com announces that ‘Western Balkan states may get fixed accession dates when Greece takes over the EU presidency in 2014′ (link).

Presseurop translates an article about Romania’s pre-modern capitalism published in the ‘Dilema Veche’ magazine (link).

Vlad Filat, Modova’s Prime Minister, writes a comment for the EUobserver titled ‘Moldova’s return to Europe’. In the light of the new developments, this is hypocritical, to say the least (link).

Sunday links (21.11.2010)

Immigration

European Turks born and raised in Germany, France and Belgium, facing the difficulty of finding a job, are moving to Istanbul. Moreover, ‘in 2009, the number returning to Istanbul (40,000) now outweighs the number of new arrivals (approximately 30,000). The children and grandchildren of Anatolian immigrants are now traveling back. A phenomenon which goes against fantastic theories of an invasion of Turkish workers in the event of Turkish accession to the European Union’ (link). And still, here’s another article about skilled labour shortage in Germany (link).

Members of European Parliament condemned the recent tightening-up of Danish immigration law (link).

A very un-Merkel-like speech: “This country is not suffering from too much Islam (…) but too little Christianity” (link).

Hungarian police ‘caught 27 foreign nationals as they tried to cross the open border between Hungary and Austria on 6 November’ (link).

The four immigrants that secluded themselves on the top of a crane in Brescia, Italy are now in police arrest (link).

Romanian Government says that Roma people which have been sent back to Romania by France will be integrated in the labour market (link).

But in France, the labour market is less opened to the children of Maghrebian immigrants (link).

‘Europe is currently threatened with a wave of refugees from Afghanistan. After years of tolerating refugees who have not been granted political asylum, German authorities have started deporting Afghan nationals in an effort to deter others from coming to the country’ (link).

According to the World Bank, ‘The number of Romanians who emigrated stands at 2.77 million this year, accounting for 13.1% of the population’ (link).

And again, problems at the detention center for the sans papiers in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne), France (link).

Extremism/xenophobia

European Alternatives organizes a forum on ‘The rise of right wing extremism throughout Europe – finding transnational answers‘ in Sofia, on 7 December (link).

The Italian region Lazio is blocking Italian LGBT community’s online pages because they have been labeled as ‘pornographic’ (link).

Hans Püschel, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) is flirting with the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) – and he has no regrets (link).

A second Romanian MP proposes a law to change the name of Roma people with ‘Gypsy’ (link).

A Romania-Hungary diplomatic scandal regarding the celebrating of the Romanian National Day in Budapest: link.

European Union

Germany, unlike France and The Netherlands, supports Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone (link).

Others

The Economist writes about Hungarian Government intention to circumscribe Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction over taxes: ‘Vasarnapi Hirek, a newspaper, quotes a politician pledging to protect the decisions of the constitutional court as “binding on everybody”. That stickler for principle was Viktor Orban, who is now prime minister. But he said it 2007, when he was in opposition’ (link).

Presseurop lodges an interesting article about the rising of the cost of fees for higher education in the UK and Europe. The question is clear but by no means easy to answer: ‘State-financed higher education or market-based system?’ (link)

‘For months, a debate has stewed in Germany about whether Google’s Street View service violates privacy by providing images of homes and front yards across the country. More than 244,000 residents requested that their homes be blurred out of the service, which launched on Thursday’ (link).

About teaching philosophy in French schools: link.

UNICEF launches an ‘Innocenti documentary’ against female genital mutilation (video).

Sunday links (14.11.2010)

Immigration

Last week I reported that in the Italian town Brescia a group of immigrants, isolated into a crane, are protesting against new asylum restrictions and are requesting for President Napoletano’s help. Now, it seems that the supporters of those immigrants clashed with the police (link).

Again, about the difference between Germany’s need for immigrants and its hostility towards them, in a fairly interesting article in The Economist (link).

European Alternatives publishes an interview with Dagmawi Ymer, co-director of the movie Like a Man on Earth (to get the movie, please click the badge on the sidebar) (link).

Denmark is tightening its laws regarding family reunification for immigrants. An excellent article about the (wrong) direction of the public policy regarding immigrants in this country here.

Equality

The German Family Minister Kristina Schröder declared in an interview with Der Spiegel that she opposes ‘the idea of legally mandating a certain percentage of women in executive positions’. She also attacked the leading feminist Alice Schwarzer: ‘I found that many of her theories went too far. For example that heterosexual intercourse was barely possible without the submission of the woman. I can only say to that: Sorry, that’s wrong’. Although Schröder is basically right, she attracted, of course, a lot of criticism from the (radical) feminist camp (link).

Ulrich de Habsbourg-Lorraine, a heir of Marie-Antoinette, cannot run for Austrian Presidency because a law of this country forbids any member of a family that ‘rules or has ruled’ a monarchy to candidate. He went to the European Court of Human Rights, and it is interesting to see what’s going to happen (link).

Roma

European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso, declared in Bucharest that the integration of Roma citizens is a national, not an European problem. Too bad politicians learn nothing from the recent past… (link). However, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding disagrees and says the situation of the Roma people in Europe is ‘scandalous’ (link). Romanian readers can find an interview with Alexandru Balasescu on the integration of Roma people here. Another article in Romanian claims that the Roma are not welcomed anymore in Canada (link).

Extremism/ xenophobia

Der Spiegel publishes an extremely interesting interview with Geert Wilders, where the latter ‘discusses his fight for a Koran ban, why German Chancellor Angela Merkel is running scared on the immigration issue and his belief that the Netherlands’ debate over Muslims has now crossed the border into Germany’. Some excerpts: Wilders does not have any problem with Jews and gay persons; cultural relativism is ‘Europe’s greatest problem’; ‘our culture is better than Islamic culture’; ‘Islam is a totalitarian and violent ideology. More of an ideology than a religion, comparable to communism and fascism’; ‘”Mein Kampf” is banned in our country. But the Koran is worse in terms of inciting hatred and violence. If my left-wing friends were consistent, the Koran would have to be banned’; ‘the main thing for me is that I want to have absolutely nothing to do with far right-wing parties like the German Republikaner, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National in France and the British National Party’; ‘my party rejects any form of EU expansion. We will vote against all additional candidates, including Croatia… Above all, we will vote against accepting Turkey – a neighbor, yes; a member of the family, no’ (link).

A street artist ‘daubs Muslim veils on half-naked fashion ads’ on the Paris metro (link).

EU

Finally, no European visas for Albania and Bosnia! (link)

European Commission: Montenegro is declared candidate to admission and Croatia is very close to accession; however, Turkey still has to solve a lot of problems (including press freedom – link) and Albania is, at the moment, not welcomed (link). A survey of European press, which seems to reflect Europe’s apathy (antipathy?) regarding the enlargement, here.

Romania in the Schengen zone? This should be happening in March next year, but the odds are not increasing, on the contrary: The Netherlands and France would like to delay this – link1; link2.

People with mental health issues are blocked from voting across EU – is this a deficit of democracy, a manifestation of semi-citizenship or a normal limitation of democratic decision-making process? (link).

Presseurop translates an article from Jyllands-Posten (Aarhus) which considers that ‘Western Europe arrogantly regards itself as the real Europe’ and announces that ’2011 will be Central Europe’s year. Hungary is set to take over the EU Presidency on 1 January, and six months later, it will hand over to Poland‘ (link).

European Alternatives will participate in the ‘European Citizens’ Initiative Seminar’ in London, on December 9 (link).

Others

Trafic management or net neutrality? A worrisome development against neutrality on the internet in the EU here and a comment here.

Sunday links (07.11.2010)

This week’s best

This week’s top article is Habermas’ ‘Leadership and Leitkultur’ (NY Times). An excellent piece on Germany’s problems regarding immigration and multiculturalism.

Discrimination

The Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized some Belgian Flemish districts because they discriminate against francophone individuals. Access to many services, including the validation of elected French mayors are conditioned on speaking Flemish. (link)

Toleration / Extremism & xenophobia

English Defence League (from which even Geert Wilders took distance) are Jews-friendly; moreover, they have a special section for gay persons. Which means that extremism in Europe is looking for new targets, and which can be more convenient  than Islam? (link).

Silvio Berlsuconi did it again: in order to defend his passion for young (or even underage, after some gossips) women, he declared that ‘it’s better to love beautiful women than to be gay’ (link).

Apollinaire’s Don Juan was censored in Turkey: it is, of course, ‘indecent and immoral’, and the publisher will be punished by law (link). But some queer banning are also happening in the old Europe: in an Italian town, the mini-skirt has been completely banned – frankly, I’m wondering what Berlusconi has to say about it (link).

ActiveWatch condemns Romanian President’s declarations regarding the Roma people; according to Traian Basescu, ‘traditionally, many Roma live from what they steal’, and ‘few of them want to work’ (link).

Religion

On the 2nd of November, Corriere della Sera wrote that the execution by stoning of Sakineh, the 43 years old Iranian woman accused of adultery, is imminent (link).

Immigration & asylum

In the Italian town Brescia a group of immigrants, isolated into a crane, are protesting against new asylum restrictions and are requesting for President Napoletano’s help (link). Meanwhile, Frontex (the EU border management agency) has send 175 armed guards to the Greece-Turkish border in order to fight (sic!) illegal immigration. Soldiers come from 25 countries, which means each country sent an average of 7 soldiers. Romania also send a helicopter (link)

OECD announced that Germany is facing an ‘immense shortage of highly qualified workers’, and immigration may be the answer to this problem (link). However, the German Integration Summit seems to deliver little, writes Der Spiegel Online (link).

The Romanian version of EurActiv.ro writes that France continues to expel immigrants. Out of 21,384 expulsions in the first 9 months of the year, 1476 involved Romanian citizens (link).

UNHCR warns that ‘hundreds of Somalis continue to flee into Kenya’ (link).

EU

On Monday, EU interior ministers are expected to lift visa requirements for Albania and Bosnia (link), although there are still unmet goals regarding democratization, the fight against corruption and organized crime in both countries.

Charlemagne writes about the shadow of the Karlsruhe’s Constitutional Court on the already decided changes of the Lisbon Treaty; The Economist blogger also quotes Romanian President Traian Basescu, who says that ‘EU leaders should help Mrs Merkel because they might in turn need her help (and German money) in future’ (link). Le Monde also publishes a lengthy analysis of the Franco-German initiative here. See some reactions in Germany after the compromise has been reached here.

Other subjects

‘The EU ambassador to Norway and senior diplomats from several EU countries plan to attend the Nobel peace prize ceremony next month despite Chinese pressure’ (link).

42% of the citizens of Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland) declared that they would vote for a new state, a sort of ‘Nordic federation’. In a rather secessionist Europe, this may be quite an amazing move (link) (link2).

The European Commission is finally making significant steps toward protecting citizens’ data on internet (link) (link2).

Hungary is going to curb Constitutional Court powers in order to implement the governmental policy of ‘crisis taxes’ (link).

In Italian libraries the e-book is getting more and more fans (link).

Sunday links (31.10.2010)

Hungary, the country that will take the presidency of the EU next year was ‘severely critiqued’ by the UN’s committee of human rights because of its treatment of the Roma people (link). Germany is also under attack, this time by the Human Rights Watch: the organization denounces Roma deportations (‘the report refers to Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians or RAE’) to Kosovo (link).

European Alternatives writes about the debate “ European Citizenship: Myth or reality?” that it organized in Cluj, Romania. The topic was, as we have been already accustomed, the ‘significance for European citizenship of the recent expulsions of Roma communities from France’ (link). The same CSO lodges other two articles on this topic: Lorenzo Fioramonti’s piece on Europe’s suburban areas as nests of intolerance (link), and Matthieu le Charpentier’s excellent commentary on the future of the Roma in France and Europe (link).

New York Times thinks Serbia moves closer to joining EU, but it doesn’t say what ‘closer’ means: from ‘opening the path to membership’ until actual accession there may be quite a distance. Unfortunately, this works for Croatia too (read a related article in The Economist, which also takes an optimist stance).

Far-right ‘lite’ parties gathered in Vienna, and it seems they had basically two goals: first, they wanted to push for an EU referendum against Turkish accession; second, they want to put some distance between them (Austria’s Freedom Party, Belgium’s Flemish separatists of the Vlaams Belang, the Danish People’s Party, Italy’s Northern League, the Slovak National Party and the Sweden Democrats) and hardcore far-right parties (The British National Party, Hungary’s Jobbik and Bulgaria’s Ataka) (link). The difference seems to be that the ‘lite’-ists have nothing against Jews and homosexuals: they ‘only’ have problems with the presence of Islam in Europe…

Talking about hardcore far-right, in the Czech Republic four neo-Nazi members have been convicted to 22 years in prison for burning down a Roma family home (link).

And talking about Islam, the controversy over the headscarf in Turkey is going on. At a quite high level, one may say: link.

A nice article about the resurgence of nationalisms in Europe and about the failure of multiculturalist policies is written by Riva Kastoryano for Le Monde (link).

The Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei announces that EU troops will be deployed on the Greek-Turkish border in order to deter illegal immigration (link). Will this be of any help? Some may hope so, since Greece’s refugee system is overwhelmed and collapsing – and for this reason, many EU Member States do not send asylum seekers back to Greece; they ‘are refusing to comply with the Dublin II regulation, which stipulates that asylum seekers have to wait for their asylum applications to be processed in the country where they enter the EU’ (link).

The problem raised by asylum seekers seems to be faced by Belgium, too: the country fears that ‘the waiving of the visa requirement for Albanians in December will prompt a surge in the number of migrants entering the Schengen Area’ (link).

EUobserver has a series of articles on LGBT rights. If you want to find out why the EU rights for same-sex families are in a ‘sad state’ and what is the relation between same-sex marriages and freedom of movement in the EU, click here. The same site writes about the existence of homophobia on the European sport scene. However, not even the LGBT community succeeds to formulate a unitary position on the question whether ‘we really need gender in sport’ (link). Finally, the site announces that ‘the Lithuanian parliament has voted to protect from prosecution two MPs implicated in violence directed towards a gay-pride parade’ (link).

Another clash between Commissioner Reding and France: this time, on the problem of changing the Lisbon Treaty (link). Presseurop is very skeptical about the idea of changing it after only one year of its being into force (as Germany and France are trying to do). The aim to protect the single currency is a respectable one, but it threatens to lead the EU to collapse (link). El Pais also thinks that in order to ‘create a culture of budgetary rigour’ changing the Treaty is not necessary; on the contrary, is a ‘simplistic and useless idea’ (link). EUobserver is more neutral (link). Read the news on Romanian here and (the results) here.

Off topic: An excellent article that calls for the freeing of European internet commerce is written by Charlemagne, The Economist‘s blogger, here. And another excellent article treating the problem of child slavery in Uzbekistan (German companies being among those profiting from this violation of human rights), here.