European press review

In the seas off Germany and Poland, more than 60 years after World War II, an environmental time-bomb is ticking in the Baltic Sea.

Wikimedia Commons

Dutch daily Trouw reports that some 13,000 tonnes of German munitions containing poisonous substances like mustard gas and arsenic were dumped into the Baltic after the war and they’ve been rusting away ever since.

According to the centre-left paper, a sixth of that amount would be enough to kill all life in those waters for a century. A Russian scientist has predicted that the poisons could start leaking out as soon as 2020. On the positive side, a Polish expert says the leaks will only be small to begin with and that the chemicals should be diluted and less dangerous on contact with water. Nevertheless, a new form of pollution awaits. Already in the 1950s swimmers reported receiving mustard-gas burns. And in 1997 fishermen were hurt when they hauled up a lump of this ageing chemical weapon in their net.

In Germany the media has been looking at what gets onto our dinner plates, and whether Europe’s food safety authorities are really doing their jobs.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung focuses on what it says is a major conflict of interest at the European Food Safety Authority.

The centre-left Munich daily says senior staff members there have worked for major companies like Kraft, Danone, Nestlé and Heinz. Those who are meant to decide in full independence what is best to eat are working too closely with these companies. Some staff are also linked to industry lobby groups, the paper claims. It lays blame at the feet of the EU for failing to break up these relationships. Food manufacturers are concerned only about profit and market share and claims that their products are good for your health are a perfect marketing tool that only helps to serve their interests.

This week marked the 22^nd anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution that brought down the communist government in Czechoslovakia and led to its breakup into two states in 1993.

Slovakia’s Sme says that the country has failed to investigate some of the darker parts of the past under the totalitarian regime and missed the chance to better understand an important side of its identity.

Attempts to set up a centre to document the crimes of the communist era have also failed, as it seems that no one wants to try to institutionalise the national memory in any form. Apart from that, there is no analysis on how the past has influenced society in Slovakia today, the liberal daily says. It complains that traces of neofascism, racism and anti-Semitism are present in society right now. It is time that intellectuals and the political elite start taking an interest, the paper says.

Bulgaria only joined the European Union in 2007 and it has access to substantial amounts of EU funds to help bring its infrastructure up to standard. But for some reason, the money is not being applied for.

The Sega Daily estimates that Bulgaria has only taken advantage of around a sixth of the EU money it is entitled to, with the government failing to apply for the rest. Meanwhile, it has paid around 715 million euros into Europe’s coffers. The paper says that if all the election pledges on the use of EU money were fulfilled, the entire globe would be equipped with motorways, water pipelines and sewage systems. Some politicians even promised to cut local taxes once the EU cash started flowing. This virtual money won votes in the last Bulgarian elections, but people will soon lose hope if jobs don’t start materialising and small businesses are left without support, the paper says.

And we end this week with the economic crisis, or is it just an identity crisis?

Romania Libera says the debt crisis has left us with three Europes - one united and efficient using the single euro currency, another lame eurozone bloc, not sure whether to limp backward or forward with Greece and Portugal, and those outside who have no hope of catching up at all.

The problem is that people have lost sight of what being European actually is, it says.

Greece and Portugal, or even Italy, are not standards to aspire to, so why should Europe be that? the liberal daily wonders. Right now a strong Germany exports to Greece and a suffering Greece remains in the grip of austerity and close to bankruptcy. So you end up with a kind of German Europe, or a Europe centred around Germany. It looks like it will take a magic trick to bring these three Europes back together, but it is impossible to imagine what kind of rabbit is likely to come out of the hat.