European press review

We begin this week in Hungary, where tens of thousands of people hit the streets in protest against the centre-right government and its controversial new constitution.

Romania’s Adevarul newspaper says that developments in Hungary are a warning to all of Europe and it urges the European Union to take action.

The new constitution, which entered into force on 1 January, poses a threat to the highest court in the land and restricts the independence of the media and the judiciary. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is ignoring people’s concerns that their democratic rights are being trampled on under the new basic law.

The EU commission should have acted a year ago, the conservative daily feels, but it was too preoccupied with the debt crisis. Will it finally wake up and act, it wonders. Nationalist voices are now very menacing and the stronger they get, the more the economy, which was downgraded last month, will deteriorate, it says.

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Dossier: Eurozone in crisis

t may be a new year, but many of Europe’s newspapers are still obsessing this week over the economic crisis and the euro single currency.

Indeed, most papers noted that January marked the 10th anniversary of the euro but that there were few celebrations.

The German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung says the single currency was given a minimalist birthday party.

• The European Commission acknowledged that no events were planned to mark a decade since the first euro coins and notes were circulated.
• Ditto from the German chancellery, while the economic affairs ministry didn’t even bother to respond the centre-left daily’s requests for information about possible events.
• The German Federal Bank put out a euro factsheet that was hardly festive. “We have other worries,” an official there said.

In contrast, Green Week in Berlin looked like an orgy of celebration, the paper notes ironically. Corks should be popping, but the big jubilee was remarkably glum.

In Greece, 2012 will be a decisive year. The government will have to choose between making more painful reforms to meet the requirements of an international bailout, or possibly leave the eurozone.

For Kathimerini this is a make-or-break year, as the government in Athens faces the ultimate policy dilemma.

The first, most pressing deadline is 20 March. Greece must secure additional funds by then to avoid a default on its debt. Its EU partners are already talking about a possible Greek exit from the bloc of nations using the euro single currency.

But most Greeks want to keep the euro, according to surveys, and it is hoped that this will be reflected in elections due in March or April. A hung parliament would only complicate matters further, the daily says. It says there is at least a 60 per cent chance that the political elite will push ahead with the reforms, rather than go back to a devalued national currency. Whatever the decision, the economic and social costs for Greece will be high. Athens will also need help from its EU partners if it is to stay in the eurozone.

Denmark took over the reins of the European Union’s rotating presidency this week for the next six months. But it already looks like it is on a collision course with one of the EU’s main institutions.

Yes, it’s a time of economic crisis, and Europe needs to act quickly.

Politiken reports that the Danish government wants to speed up the way that important reforms are passed through the European parliament. The assembly is the EU’s only elected body but its processes, of resolutions and amendments are notoriously slow.

Denmark’s European affairs minister says informal agreements must be reached behind closed doors with party leaders and key decision-makers. Those accords could then be voted through parliament without labouring through the amendment process, the centre-left daily says. But the parliament has been flexing new political muscle it won through the Lisbon Treaty. Its outgoing president is sceptical about the Danish idea, saying that democracy can only work if every step in the process is respected. His likely successor, a German Socialist, warns outright that he will block any such move.

And we end this week in Italy, where elected officials are unlikely to face any pay cuts this year.

Yes, Corriere della Sera reports that Italy’s lawmakers are earning 16,000 euros before tax each month. That’s almost double the salary of their counterparts in Belgium, and about four times the amount a deputy would earn in Spain. They also have the most beneficial parliamentary pension plan in Europe.

The figures were published as part of moves to bring salaries into line with European norms. But the irony is that the method for calculating and comparing the earnings was so complicated that it’s unlikely they will be considered valid standards on which to base new pay levels. If anyone harboured illusions that the salaries of MPs and public servants would be slashed, they are sadly mistaken, the centre-left Milan-based daily laments.