[Press Review] 15 February 2006
EUOBSERVER.COM
15.02.2006 @ 16:52 CET
Contents
1. Top stories
2. International
3. Legal and Social
4. Financial
Top stories
Bird flu reaches Germany and Austria
The dangerous H5N1 flu strain has been found in two dead swans in Germany and two in Austria, with final confirmation expected from the EU's official laboratory in Waybridge, UK, European media write.
Horst Seehofer, the German consumer protection minister said "Bird flu worries us increasingly. The speed of the spreading increases significantly," German papers said.
In Denmark, Sweden and Norway, chicken farmers were urged to keep poultry indoors, write Nordic media.
French health authorities have warned of "aggravated risks" for infection in France with Paris set to announce countermeasures today, French papers report.
EU veterinarian experts will today and tomorrow discuss slaughtering measures to take in case the virus reaches trade poultry, according to Le Figaro, while Liberation writes that the EU is preparing to block all non-treated poultry imports.
Meanwhile, Italian agriculture minister Gianni Alemanno said he will ask the European Commission to allow state aid for flu-hit farms after Rome confiscated 80,000 chickens in South Italy, IlSole24Ore reports.
The UN has said that a spring influx of migratory birds from Africa, where the flu virus has already struck in Nigeria, could intensify risks in Europe Rzeczpospolita says.
IlSole24Ore
La Repubblica
El Pais
Jyllands-Posten
Dagens Nyheter
Le Figaro
Le Monde
Liberation
Sueddeutsche
Die Welt
FAZ
FT Deutschland
Handelsblatt
Spiegel Online
FT Europe
Guardian Europe
Independent
Times
Gazeta Wyborcza
Rzeczpospolita
EU talks to Egypt on UN religious insult charter
El Pais writes that the EU and the muslim "Vatican" - Cairo's Al Hazar university - are exploring ways to support a UN charter against religious defamation.
"We have talked about a project resolution to be put before the general assembly of the UN, against defamations of religions," declared Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Geit after meeting EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.
German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel yesterday published a cartoon depicting the Iranian football team at this summer's World Cup in Germany with explosives attached to their chests, opening up a new front in the row over caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.
Protesters threw stones and fireworks at the German embassy in Tehran over the cartoon row in general, German media report, with chants such as "Germany, you are fascists and servants of Zionism."
Italian Northern League minister Roberto Calderoli plans to wear t-shirts of the Danish Mohammed cartoons, ABC writes.
Arabic TV station MBC has organised a trip by Arab youths to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in order to demonstrate that neither side hates the other.
Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig on Tuesday denied having sent the first cartoons on the holocaust to Iranian daily Hamshahri, which is keen to test the west's own free speech limits, Le Monde reports.
ABC
El Pais
Die Welt
FAZ
Handelsblatt
Spiegel Online
Guardian Europe
Independent
Times
Le Monde
Rzeczpospolita
PAP
Services bill D-day looms
Thirty to fifty thousand people from all around Europe demonstrated in Strasbourg yesterday against the adoption by the European Parliament of the EU services directive, French papers report.
Demonstrators still consider the directive a "social danger", despite the withdrawal of the so-called country of origin principle from the document, Liberation writes.
"It is still not defined which services will be covered by the directive", a French trade union member told the paper, while an Italian demonstrator called it "illegal".
Inside parliament, the EPP-ED group made last minute changes ahead of tomorrow's vote, removing amendments allowing national exemptions on grounds of consumer protection and social policy.
The UK press says the changes were needed to avert a rebellion by Nordic and new member states conservatives.
Discussion was heated in plenary, with German socialist leader Martin Schulz saying "We want higher pay, higher social security, better consumer protection and environmental standards," and British Liberal leader Graham Watson answering "Your proposal is a gain for some and a loss for all."
Polish MEPs all spoke out in favour of the directive, while Polish media reported that the European Commission and the Austrian presidency are both happy to back a watered down version of the bill in the name of consensus.
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told Gazeta Wyborcza the vote will be a test of post-enlargement Europe's ability to handle tough legislation.
ILSole24Ore
FT Europe
Guardian Europe
Independent
Liberation
Le Figaro
Le Monde
Gazeta Wyborcza
Rzeczpospolita
FAZ
FT Deutschland
EU and US launch airline raids
EU and US anti-cartel authorities raided the offices of British Airways, KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, SAS and Cargolux on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday in a joint investigation into alleged price fixing in the air freight sector, German and UK media write.
Dagens Nyheter
Die Welt
Handelsblatt
Spiegel Online
Telegraph
International
Iran confirms nuclear activities
Tehran announced yesterday it has resumed its uranium enrichment activities, judging it "unacceptable" to stop its research in the field, French papers report.
Meanwhile, French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow signed a joint declaration calling on Iran to "comply fully" with its international obligations.
Le Figaro
Le Monde
Liberation
Israel urges block on EU funds to Palestine
Israel is pushing donor states of the Palestinian Authority, including the EU, to cut off funding this weekend, when the new Palestinian parliament will be sworn in.
A spokesman from the Israeli foreign ministry said that with the new Hamas-dominated parliament, a terror organisation will take over the Palestinian government, FAZ writes.
FAZ
Die Welt
Handelsblatt
Sueddeutsche
Guantanamo bay faces MEPs ire
MEPs are set to urge the US to close the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba in a resolution voted tomorrow that follows up on UN criticism of the jail, El Pais says.
El Pais
El Mundo
La Razon
Jyllands-Posten
Turkish prosecutor investigates Kurd killings
Die Welt reports that DNA research by Turkish state prosecutors has revealed that human remains found in a Kurdish village are from 11 men who went missing in 1993.
Turkish troops in that year killed 11 men in the Kurdish village of Alacakoy, the paper writes.
Die Welt
Poland reinstalls ambassador in Minsk
Poland is to send Russianist Henryk Litwin as its ambassador to Minsk in time for the 19 March elections, with analysts saying the post should not be left empty at such a symbolic moment in the dictatorship's history, Rzeczposolita says.
Rzeczpospolita
Ukraine to raise Russian naval rent
Ukraine plans to raise the rent on Russia's Black Sea naval fleet in Sevastopol in retaliation for higher Russian gas prices, Rzeczposolita writes.
Rzeczpospolita
Legal and Social
MEPs draw up CIA probe witness list
MEPs have drawn up a list of people they want to interview as part of their CIA jails investigation, Gazeta Wyborcza says.
The list includes: Italian spy chief Nicolo Pollari; UK diplomat Craig Murray; Claudio Cordone of Amnesty International; Dana Priest from the Washington Post; CIA chief Porter Goss; US foreign affairs head Condoleezza Rice and alleged rendition victim Khalid el Masari.
Gazeta Wyborcza
EU anti-terror plan to be kept secret
Sweden is the only EU member state who wants to let the public see the EU's new anti-terror plan, writes Dagens Nyheter.
Dagens Nyheter
Air companies blacklist takes shape
EU member states have until tomorrow to present each a list of airlines that they want to ban from their territories, with the definitive EU blacklist to be adopted by mid-March and then published on the internet, Le Figaro reports.
Le Figaro
Trade unionists take European approach
Trade union leaders in Fiat and General Motors have begun hammering out cross-border agreements with foreign colleagues in a bid to stop price wars and mass redundancies following delocalisation of large car plants, Rzeczpospolita says.
Rzeczpospolita
UK bans smoking in public spaces
The British parliament yesterday overwhelmingly approved a law banning smoking in public spaces following the example of Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway and Sweden, Le Monde reports.
Le Monde
Germany considers wine trademark
German agriculture minister Horst Seehofer is considering a special trademark for "pure" German wine produced by traditional methods, following a recent wine deal between the EU and the US which opens the door for more modern production techniques.
Die Welt
Brussels ups pressure on Berlin over public TV financing
EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has upped pressure on the German government to disclose information on commercial plans by German public TV stations ARD and ZDF.
Brussels wants to make sure that tax contributions to the channels are not used for commercial activities, according to Handelsblatt which saw a fresh letter by Kroes to Berlin.
Handelsblatt
Financial
EU stops Italian deficit procedure
The European Commission will today adopt new recommendations to stop the excessive deficit procedure against Italy, saying that "for the moment there are no further steps of excessive deficit necessary" Italian media say.
Il Giornale
La Stampa
IlSole24Ore
La Repubblica
Poland in no hurry to join euro
Polish finance minister Zyta Gilowska told PAP that fats eurozone entry might be bad for Poland, saying political instability in the country since 2003 has hampered economic reforms.
Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz told Polish business leaders the country will fulfill Maastricht Treaty eurozone entry criteria in 2009 and will not consider euro entry moves before this date, Rzeczpospolita reports.
Rzeczpospolita
PAP
EU promises Slovenia 2007 euro entry
Slovenia is set to be the first of the new member states to join the eurozone in 2007 European finance ministers agreed, ABC reports.
IlSoleOre
ABC
Germany's slow growth drags down eurozone
The eurozone’s gross domestic product rose by 0.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2005, down from 0.6 per cent growth in the previous three months, according to figures from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical unit.
For the whole of 2005, eurozone GDP grew by 1.3 per cent, compared with 3.5 per cent in the US.
Germany’s and France’s economic growth are mainly behind the halt, with the unexpected slowdown revealing weaknesses in two major economies, especially in consumer spending.
FT Europe
Guardian Europe
Times
Big energy firms cheat on emissions trading
Five big German energy firms are boosting their profits at the expense of consumers from the EU’s emission trading scheme, according to a WWF report seen by FAZ.
The firms get greenhouse gasses emissions rights for free from the German government, but consumers pay a price for energy that includes the cost of the rights is included.
FAZ
Stark confirmed as ECB governor
German Bundesbank man Jurgen Stark has been elected as a new governor of the European Central Bank replacing Otmar Issing, IlSole24Ore reports.
IlSole24Ore
Ageing of population to affect EU economy
The ageing of the EU population will result in important problems for the union’s economy, according to a report by the European economic policy committee, and presented to EU finance ministers yesterday.
Growth will decrease, while age and pension-related expenditures will increase progressively until 2050, Le Monde writes.
Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg will suffer the most, according to the report, while ageing is likely to have lower budgetary impact in countries which have started to adapt their pension systems, such as France, Germany, Austria and Finland.
Le Monde
Liberation
Plastic bag dumping probed
The European Commission has for the past six months been investigating whether or not Asian plastic bag producers are dumping products on the European market, Rzeczpospolita writes.
Rzeczpospolita