The EU summit in Brussels is at the centre of comments in the German press. “This summit is different from others”, writes Martin Winter in the Frankfurter Rundschau (16/6). “It will be decided whether the EU is able to draw strength from the crisis or whether it will fall into an uncontrollable vortex. For the future of Europe it is indispensable that the heads of state and of government seriously and unequivocally make every effort to tackle people’s problems, and that they present themselves as European statesmen and not as a pack of representatives divided by national interests. To recreate solid links with people, the EU needs a political process in which research, development and training form the basis of a new economic power, in which the EU may become the common force to curb globalization and in which people’s fear of taking risky adventures may be overcome, by placing clear limits on further enlargement”. “Today and tomorrow, the heads of state and of government attending the summit in Brussels will have to re-assemble the broken pieces again”, comments Dietrich von Kyaw in Die Welt. “ A change of heart not only in terms of greater realism, but also in terms of greater involvement in European policy could help”. And the weekly Der Spiegel (13/6) notes: “ European political leaders have experienced with horror how in the space of a few days the EU has slipped into a deep existential crisis”. In response to the great hullabaloo and surprise aroused by the liberation of the French journalist Florence Aubenas and her driver and interpreter, after 157 days of imprisonment in Iraq, the French daily La Croix (14/06) analyses a similar situation in which public opinion seems to show no interest. “ The inferno of the Colombian hostages” is the title of the report, in which it is pointed out that the inhabitants of Colombia “ are not interested in the fate of Ingrid Betancourt. Besides, no one speaks any longer of the hostages, because kidnapping in Colombia has become so common it no longer makes news”. In her report, Dominique Gerbaud notes that “ there are 2700 hostages in the hands of the rebels” and that “for almost three years now Franco-Colombian relations have had only one question on their agenda: the fate of Ingrid Betancourt”. Thus says the journalist “ she has involuntarily become a symbol, because she has given a face to all the Colombians taken hostage: the young Franco-Colombian woman is a trump card in the hands of the Marxist guerrillas, a source of propaganda for the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)“. The same paper, La Croix (15/06), reports that “ the French bishops are simplifying their structures“. “ The collegial work of the episcopate is now organized round a simplified structure“, explains the paper, in reporting on the French bishops’ assembly recently held at Chevilly-Larue. “ The collective work has been simplified around seven commissions instead of the former ten and nine ‘councils’ instead of the twenty previous ‘committees’“. The structure of the Bishops’ Conference is now based on three organs, the permanent Council, the “Studies and Projects” Committee, and the pastoral commissions and councils (on which the laity also sit). “ God is invited to civil weddings” headlines The Times (13/06) in presenting the proposal, now being examined by the British Parliament, of permitting “ songs, music and readings requested by couples but banned by the current law” to be inserted in the wedding ceremony”. “ Couples continues the paper will thus be able to choose their favourite pieces in an unexpected shake-up of marriage laws planned by the government“. The proposal now being discussed is to permit “ hymns to be sung and passages from the Bible to be read“. The fear is also expressed that “ the Churches may not accept being stripped of the one reminder of religious matrimony by conferring a degree of religious legitimacy on civil weddings“. The “institutional” maltreatment of children in six centres for juveniles (aged from 14 to 23) in the Canary Isles is a front-page story in the Spanish daily El Paìs of 15/06, which also dedicates two pages inside the paper to analysing the situation of children’s homes in some Spanish regions. It is a situation that the paper calls “ intolerable” and that “requires urgent intervention”. In recent times, in fact, “20 fires, two attempted suicides, hundreds of physical assaults, cases of sexual violence and two deaths, of which one last week” have been ascertained in these structures .———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1397 N.ro relativo : 46 Data pubblicazione : 17/06/05
