Cicero, Berlin – Cartoon. See more.
Público, Lisbon – In requesting that the constitutional court re-examine the state budget for 2013, president Cavaco Silva runs the risk of plunging his country into a political crisis, warns a researcher and political analyst. As a result, the Portuguese people may be called on to take responsibility for the remedy chosen to cure the country’s economic ills. See more.
After several months of talks, the European Parliament’s special envoys, former European Parliament president Pat Cox and Poland’s former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, have failed to obtain Yulia Tymoshenko’s release from prison. But Europe should continue to push Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to free her, says Gazeta Wyborcza’s commentator Wacław Radziwinowicz, noting that the two men have still managed to do a lot for the former Ukrainian PM, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011. Radziwinowicz writes that-
Europe is paying close attention to the fate of the “Orange revolution princess”, and persistently, but also tactfully, is demanding fair treatment for her. This gives Tymoshenko a safety guarantee. Yanukovych, aware that Brussels is watching him, will not listen to his aides who would love to ‘break the hag’s neck’.
But what is at stake in this game is not only Tymoshenko’s future, but also Ukraine’s place in Europe, the daily’s commentator observes. All the more in light of recent attempts by Moscow to pull Kiev back into its sphere of influence. However, Yanukovych –
can’t keep vacillating between the East and the West forever. The more Moscow keeps pressing him, the more willing he will be to listen to the European Parliament envoys talking to him patiently, and he will find it easier to realise that if the Ukraine conducts the necessary reforms, it will find its place in Europe.
„Does the fall of former European Health Commissioner, John Dalli, also cause problems for the President of the Commission?“ asks Belgian daily De Morgen. The Green Party group of the European Parliament has requested an investigation into the „secret meetings between the tobacco industry and José Manuel Barroso’s staff,“ the paper explains. The Greens hope to obtain the support of the other political parties at an upcoming meeting of group presidents.
De Morgen notes that Barroso demanded Dalli’s resignation, on October 16 following a complaint from a Swedish tobacco producer and suspicions that the commissioner had of a conflict of interests. Dalli denied the allegations but admitted that he had omitted to mention a meeting with a tobacco industry lobbyist, which, „according to the European Commission is a clear violation of its code of conduct as well as that of the World Health Organisation,“ De Morgen says. Yet, the Commission itself has had „at least six undeclared contacts with the tobacco industry,“ says Green MEP José Bové, adding that „if Dalli had to resign, other leaders [having violated the same rules] should do the same“. In addition, says De Morgen –
Green MEPs Bart Staes and Bové say that, thanks to intensive lobbying of Barroso’s departments, the tobacco industry managed, as of 2010, to delay the introduction of the new, stricter tobacco directive. Thus, [the Commission’s General-Secretary, Catherine] Day, twice delayed crucial talks regarding the directive.
The conservative European People’s Party (EPP), the majority group in the European Parliament, partially supports the Green’s proposal. But it fears that „putting together a special commission will be time-consuming“. According to the EPP, the priority is to have access to the report filed by the independent Supervisory Committee, the internal watchdog of OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office. The Committee is said to have found irregularities in the OLAF investigation, that originally pointed the finger at Dalli.
Europe is in the midst of a “zombie company” revolution, where hundreds of thousands of firms, which should have folded due to colossal debts, are clinging on to solvency thanks to “government help, ultra-loose monetary policy and, often, the reluctance of lenders to write down bad loans since the crisis,” bemoans the Financial Times.
The economic daily quotes a business consultant saying: “The fundamental tenet of capitalism, which holds that some bad companies need to fail to make way for new and better ones, is being rewritten.” One in 10 UK firms can afford to repay only interest on loans rather than the capital sum. The newspaper adds –
In some parts of the continent the problem appears even more severe. The lowest rates of insolvency in 2011 were from Greece, Spain and Italy, the three countries whose economies have struggled most. Fewer than 30 in every 10,000 companies fail in these countries – this at a time when nearly one in three groups is loss-making.
Zombie companies are being blamed for Europe’s weak recovery, triggering fears the bloc may echo Japan, where low interest rates, loose government policy and big banks reluctance to foreclose on unprofitable companies has caused decades of weak growth. The newspaper continues –
In the US, where the philosophy of “creative destruction” holds more sway, there has been a swift increase in insolvency rates since the crisis. But this has been far less the case in Europe, where policy makers have been more focused on protecting jobs than on boosting efficiency.
The paper quotes a debt specialist saying –
Europe is like a forest floor that is being clogged with weeds, choking off nutrients and light to saplings with a chance of becoming trees. What Europe needs is a fire to clear out the undergrowth.
To Ethnos, Athens – Cartoon. See more.
EUobserver.com, Brussels – From Scotland’s membership of the EU should it split from the UK, to handling requests for military help to put down pro-independence movements, the recent rise in European secessionist spirit poses tricky questions for the Union. EU leaders should keep their cool, argues a Greek journalist. See more.
„Is the European Commission more concerned with promoting the interests of a US pharmaceutical firm than in ensuring the survival of several dozen patients suffering from a serious and rare liver disease?“ asks French daily, Libération. The paper explains that –
for the past three years, it has fought tooth and nail against authorising European sales of Orphacol. Produced by small French laboratory CTRS, the drug would save those suffering from the fatal disease. This relentless bureaucratic assault cannot be explained by reasons of public health since the advice of the experts – and of the 27 member states – is unanimously in favour of a medicine that has proved its worth.
However, this refusal by the Commission to authorise Orphacol works in favour of a US firm, Asklepion Pharmaceuticals, a laboratory controlled by the Church of the Seventh Day Adventist, which has also requested an authorisation to market a competing drug – non-existent as yet – from the London-based European Medicines Agency.
This stubborn refusal is „incomprehensible“ admits a Commission official. Because, Libération continues, „the Commission usually sticks to the advice of the scientific experts from the various European agencies.“
The paper singles out the role of Patricia Brunko, head of a unit responsible for drugs designed for human use within the EU’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers, who „appears determined to sink Orphacol”. However, adds the paper, if one makes the link with the Dalli affair,
everyone has noted that Brunko’s boss was former Commissioner John Dalli, who was sacked by Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso in October following suspected corruption from the tobacco lobby. Yet, no case has been filed with OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office,“ French officials note.
Europe’s top telecoms executives are in talks to create a pan-European infrastructure network to unite the continent’s fragmented national markets, reveals the Financial Times on its front page. The idea of pooling telecoms infrastructure emerged last year at a private meeting between European Commissioner for Competition Joaquín Almunia and bosses of Europe’s biggest groups, including Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom, Telecom Italia and Telefónica. The move aims to combat a feeling among the industry that “Europe’s disjointed market has impeded their ability to compete.” The economic daily adds that –
establishing an EU-wide network-sharing agreement would be fraught with financial and technological obstacles, given the myriad differences in infrastructure and national rules. But […] it could also yield consumer benefits, such as single pricing for telecoms and internet services across Europe.
Around four-fifths of EU mobile customers have subscriptions with the four largest groups, but these operate independently through some of the 1,200 fixed telecoms operators and almost 100 mobile networks, that exist in the EU. The newspaper concludes –
Grand schemes face near-insurmountable political hurdles. Much more likely is some degree of network sharing without full regulatory overhaul. This could be more acceptable to domestic regulators already subject to EU rules.
Die Zeit, Hamburg – Hard-hit by the crisis, Lisbon is wooing rich investors from its former colonies. Anyone who invests in the country has a good chance of obtaining a visa — and an open door to the rest of Europe. See more.