Around the World in 10 Days
By Tom Birchenough
Moscow Times, Russia
June 23 2006
Moscow International Film Festival
Alexei Muradov’s “The Worm” is the only Russian entry among the 17
films in the main competion.
Over the last 15 years, the Moscow International Film Festival has
faced up to a range of problems — on the financial and
organizational fronts (now much improved) and in the artistic value
of its central competition program. A decade ago, the country’s film
distribution industry was barely functioning, especially when it came
to the art-house market that traditionally supplies festivals with
their most interesting and critically acclaimed fare.
Today, major Russian films are released throughout the year, while
art-house distribution has grown considerably. All that has affected
MIFF’s international profile — though the jury is still out (so to
speak) on whether it lives up to the standards of an event that at
least nominally competes with Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Or, perhaps
more to the point, with the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary event,
which usually opens within days of MIFF and concentrates to a large
degree on Central European and Russian fare.
The first scandal of this year’s MIFF — the festival’s 28th edition,
which opens today and runs to July 2 — was that the jury was out
(this time, literally). Its expected president, Austrian director
Michael Haneke, pulled out of that position earlier this month,
citing unexpected developments in the production plans for his next
film. MIFF organizers clearly took umbrage at the news, reacting with
a distinctly hostile open letter to the director. It was the latest
in a number of incidents in recent years that suggest that a sense of
grace, especially of the kind that such events depend on, hasn’t
always been the organizers’ strong point.
Confirmed jury members include Russian director Alexei Uchitel (whose
“Dreaming of Space” took the top prize last year), British actress
Julie Christie, Canadian actor Remy Girard, Polish director Andrzej
Zulawski and French critic and producer Pierre-Henri Deleau. Only on
Wednesday was it announced that they had discussed the matter between
themselves and agreed that Zulawski would assume the role of
president.
The other perennial question about the event is the presence and
prominence of Russian films in MIFF’s programs. Given that the
domestic film industry is on a creative high at the moment — and
that the festival’s chief sponsor, the Federal Culture and
Cinematography Agency, is also a prime backer of new Russian cinema
— it is somewhat surprising that only one Russian film (Alexei
Muradov’s “The Worm”) is on the main competition slate of 17 movies.
Some balance comes with Israeli director Eitan Anner’s “Love&Dance,”
a cross-cultural drama about Russian immigrants with elements of
ballroom dancing thrown in.
Moscow International Film Festival
John Malkovich Stars in “Klimt,” a biopic of the Viennese painter.
A likely explanation for this state of affairs was the truly strong
program at this month’s Kinotavr film festival in Sochi, which proved
that the art-house end of the Russian film industry is thriving.
MIFF’s refusal to admit films already screened at national festivals
into its international competition seems to be depriving it of
potentially valuable material. Nonetheless, this year’s selectors —
the make-up of the body has changed considerably over the past year,
most notably with the departure of its previous head, Kirill Razlogov
— said they had seen the works concerned and decided not to invite
them. (Rivalry between the two events peaked last year when Uchitel’s
“Dreaming of Space,” already announced in the Kinotavr program, was
pulled out to go to Moscow.)
The news isn’t all bad for MIFF. A potential competitor, a new
festival in St. Petersburg that was aiming for a similar
international profile, appears to have bitten the dust. Conflict
between the two events, with the St. Petersburg festival scheduled to
take place less than a month after the Moscow one was to end, would
have been interesting, although hardly inspiring; extra piquancy came
from the fact that the president of the St. Petersburg event was
initially set to be director Andrei Konchalovsky, brother of MIFF
president Nikita Mikhalkov (although Konchalovsky pulled out earlier
this year). This week brought an announcement that the event in
Russia’s northern capital — which had the strong backing of St.
Petersburg city authorities, if not all of the city’s major cultural
figures — had been nominally delayed until next year. Many doubt
that it will ever see the light of day.
Moscow International Film Festival
The French film “How Much Do You Love Me?” stars Monica Belucci and
Gerard Depardieu.
Contributing to the lack of Russian material in the MIFF competition
is the fact that some acclaimed films, such as Kirill Serebrennikov’s
Kinotavr-winner “Playing the Victim,” have already opened in general
release — though it might be suspected that a real invitation from
MIFF would have persuaded the producers to hold back for a month, had
they wanted to.
What’s most surprising is that some directors who received major
acclaim at the Moscow event in recent years chose to bypass it with
their new films. Alexander Rogozhkin took prizes with his “Cuckoo”
back in 2002, but he bowed his new film, the World War II aviation
drama “Transit,” at Kinotavr; it is later set to play at Karlovy
Vary. Similarly, Boris Khlebnikov — whose “Koktebel,” co-directed
with Alexei Popogrebsky, took a prize at MIFF in 2003 — chose to
open his new “Free Floating” in Sochi, and to wait for further
international invitations.
That leaves the Moscow main competition, traditionally balanced
slightly toward European fare, with three films from established
major directors: France’s Bertrand Blier (“How Much Do You Love
Me?”), Hungary’s Istvan Szabo (“Relatives,” featuring Russian actor
Oleg Tabakov, among others), and Chile’s Raoul Ruiz, who brings his
Austrian-French-British-German artistic biopic “Klimt,” starring John
Malkovich as the famed Viennese artist.
Moscow International Film Festival
The American film “Ask the Dust” is about an interracial romance in
1930s Los Angeles.
The American film industry is traditionally little-represented at
MIFF. This year, the sole U.S. contender is “Ask the Dust” by Robert
Towne (a past Oscar-winner for his script for Roman Polanski’s
“Chinatown”). Towne’s film features a high-profile cast including
Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Britain’s Jeremy Brock completes the
list of English-language fare with “Driving Lessons,” starring Julie
Walters.
The parallel Perspectives program includes more local fare, with
Armenian-born Maria Saakyan’s debut “The Lighthouse,” a tale of
contemporary warfare in the Caucasus, and “Spring,” from Uzbek
director Yolkin Tuichiyev. Another director making his feature debut,
Russia’s Mikhail Segal, comes through strongly with the World War II
drama “Franz+Polina,” scripted by the late Belarussian writer Ales
Adamovich, best known in film circles for his work on Elem Klimov’s
groundbreaking 1985 war film “Come and See.” Though overlong,
“Franz+Polina” heralds a new talent who treats a difficult subject —
the relations between occupying German forces and the local
resistance — through a very human perspective.
Innovations include the appearance of a new world documentary
program, titled “Free Thought,” which draws on international prize
winners from the last two years. Festival screening locations are
also more compact than in previous years, with the great majority
taking place in the Oktyabr multiplex on Novy Arbat.
As for the star factor — which cynics have seen as an attempt to
make up for low quality in the festival’s films — opening night
features a screening of “The Promise” by Chinese director Chen Kaige,
who is to be feted with a lifetime achievement award. The closing
film will be Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver,” with the traditional
Konstantin Stanislavsky acting award set to go to France’s Gerard
Depardieu. Any further star visits will be believed, as organizers
have said in the past, when they know that guests have gotten on
their planes.
For viewers unenticed by the competition films and immune to
celebrity, it’s the sidebar programs that provide the most reliable
viewing attractions. There’s a program of contemporary Israeli film,
the “Asian Extreme” program, which promises exactly what its title
suggests, and the established art-house strand “8 1/2 Films.” The
Russian program at Dom Kino includes already-released films, as well
as some due over the next few months, including Pavel Lungin’s “The
Island,” Nikolai Khomeriki’s complicated Cannes entry “977” and
British director Peter Greenaway’s Russian version of his ambitious
“Tulse Luper Suitcases.” Film scholars can choose between a
retrospective of films from the Khrushchev-era Thaw, or the
distinctly contemporary Media Forum, highlighting new media
directions and intriguingly titled “Autho(Ritarianism).”
Of course, some critics will lambast MIFF on certain points — it’s
their habit — but for viewers, it’s a week of rich-enough choice
that comes only once a year.
For a schedule of screenings at the Moscow International Film
Festival, see the Cinema listings or visit

PanARMENIAN.Net
Baku Hopes for Karabakh Conflict Soonest Settlement
23.06.2006 15:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At present the peaceful settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is the most
admissible variant. Moreover taking into account the
intensity of the talks some progress can be expected
in the process, Milli Mejlis deputy, member of the
permanent parliamentary commission for international
affairs Aidyn Abbasov said. In his words, the work is
targeted at a peaceful solution of the problem. ~SIf
there is no precise wayout, other solutions, which
also imply peaceful settlement, should be sought for.
War can be announced at any time but settling a
problem this way is not the most sensible thing. That
is why Baku during many years proceeds with the
efforts to settle the conflict peacefully and the
problem will be solved in the near future,~T he
remarked.
At that Abbasov refrained from commenting on the
statement by the Azeri MFA, which said that Baku is
ready to grant Nagorno Karabakh a status equal to the
status of Tatarstan within Russia, reported Echo newspaper.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Shaking Things Up
By Sergey Chernov
Moscow Times, Russia
June 23 2006
Avant Music
The headliner of Avant Fest 2006 is Arab Strap, a Scottish band that
includes Malcolm Middleton (left) and Aidan Moffat (right).
Avant Fest 2006, to be held on Project Fabrika’s open-air stage
this Saturday and Sunday, was designed to fight Russia’s “musical
provincialism,” according to founder Maxim Silva-Vega.
Now entering its third year, Avant brings a slice of cutting-edge music
from the West, with many acts performing in Moscow for the first time.
“We are orienting toward modern rock ‘n’ roll and modern pop music,
toward [Britain’s] Glastonbury festival,” Silva-Vega said in a recent
telephone interview. “We want to be a festival like they have in
Europe, with relevant bands and a democratic atmosphere, where fans
can mix with the musicians.”
This year’s Avant, which has a lineup of 26 bands, including six
international ones, will be headlined by the Scottish indie legends
Arab Strap. Hailing from Falkirk, Scotland, the unusual-sounding duo
of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton will perform Saturday night
backed by a full rock band.
“It’s a five-piece band, it’s very rock, as opposed to the other
bands we’ve had,” said Moffat by telephone from Dublin, Ireland,
where the band was performing last week.
According to Moffat, the band playing at Avant will be pretty much
the same as that used on “The Last Romance,” Arab Strap’s last album,
described by critics as its “lightest” and “brightest” record to date.
“I think we wanted everything a bit more immediate,” he said of the
album. “We wanted to catch people’s attention a bit quicker than
[on] our previous records. On the older records, you have to really
spend time with them and listen to them and give them your attention,
and I suppose the idea was that it was going to be quicker.
“You know, not commercial or anything like that, but just a little bit
more approachable and certainly more melodic and tuneful. And it does
have a happy ending as well. There aren’t many of our records that have
happy endings, but this one has a nice, big, bright, happy ending.”
To achieve this new feel, Arab Strap — which has been around for 10
years and took its name from a sex-shop device — had to change its
modus operandi drastically.
“How we normally work is, you know, we just get together after a year
or two, and then we both have things we’ve been working on, and we just
bring it together,” Moffat said. “We don’t really normally do demos and
things like that, but we did do it for our last album. It was the first
time we really had the songs written before we went to the studio.”
With Scotland in the limelight again thanks to the success of the
Glasgow-based Franz Ferdinand, Moffat said that his homeland tends
to draw everyone’s attention once in a while.
“It always comes round every five or six years, the spotlight on
Scotland again,” he said.
Apart from Arab Strap, Avant Fest will feature Oceansize, a loud
five-piece progressive rock group from Manchester. Also from Manchester
comes BigFinn, whose style ranges from folk to electronic.
BigFinn features brothers Colin and Norman McLeod, who run the Moolah
Rouge studios in Manchester and came to Russia earlier this year as
the additional musicians to I Am Kloot.
Other international acts include Why?, a band based in Oakland,
California, that blends indie rock and hip-hop; the French “new
chanson” artist Dominique A; the melancholic indie-pop band Refree,
from Barcelona, Spain; and the experimental, instrumental trio Plokk,
from Hamburg, Germany.
The Russian bands taking part in the festival are either established
club acts — such as the woman-fronted Deti Picasso, which plays
guitar alt-rock with a touch of Armenian folk, and the post-rock
outfit Silence Kit — or up-and-coming acts such as 2H Company,
the hip-hop crew from the suburbs of St. Petersburg.
Avant Fest 2006 runs Sat. and Sun. starting at 4 p.m. both days
at Project Fabrika, located at 18 Perevedenovsky Pereulok. Metro
Baumanskaya, Elektrozavodskaya. Tel. 265-3935. For a complete schedule
of concerts, see

Azerbaijan Has No Problems But Karabakh
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.06.2006 16:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Our number one problem is the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict. Unfortunately, there is no progress in this field at
all. Talks are going on but without any result”, President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said. Against all the odds, he continued,
Azerbaijan tries to use capabilities of talks in full. “Now we don’t
hope for international regulation mechanisms. We cannot get along with
this situation. We will never get along with loss of our grounds. We
will never let Nagorno Karabakh apart from Azerbaijan and this is
not the subject of talks,” Aliyev said.
“We highly appraise the efforts and decisions of international
organizations in settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We highly
appraise the work of the OSCE Minsk Group. They really do their best
to settle the problem. How long we will take part in talks? How long
shall we wait? Our patience is not boundless,” Aliyev added.
“Azerbaijan today faces no problems but Karabakh. Therefore,
all necessary funds shall be allotted to form the army”, Aliyev
said. “Azerbaijan lives in the state of war and army formation should
be the matter of great importance. Even today, army is paid big
attention to. We work in all directions on strengthening the army. It
is necessary to allot funds from the state budget to raise the army
and we do this. During the recent three years our military expenses
rose 4 times. They totaled in $135mln in 2003, while in 2006 this
amount equals to $700mln. And our plans include raising this amount”,
Ilham Aliyev said.

VUE Weekly, Canada
June 22 2006
SYSTEM OF A DOWN FOR THE COUNT?
BRYAN CARROLL / [email protected]
If lately it seems that every time you walk down Jasper Avenue you’re
looking at a new poster for System of a Down, you’re onto something.
Whether it’s for the double album the band decided to release in two
parts spaced months apart, or for the seemingly unending tours that
followed, System of a Down have been making their presence felt in
Edmonton almost as much as girls with their Oilers jerseys pulled up
around their ears have been lately.
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, who actually lived in Canada
for some time after his family fled Lebabnon because of civil war,
explains that he and the band are always thrilled to tour in Canada.
“I lived in Toronto for four years and really enjoyed it. I love
coming back,” he says. “We’ve developed a really nice following in
Canada.”
That “really nice following” the band has developed must have been
dismayed to learn recently that, following the band’s Canadian dates
and headlining tour with Ozzfest, System of a Down will be taking an
indefinite hiatus to work on solo projects.
For most of the band’s members, these solo projects will be of a
similar nature to their previous work; Dolmayan’s project, however,
is decidedly un-musical.
“I have ideas to do a small comic book-based business,” explains
Dolmayan, who will most likely also play drums on a few tracks of
each of his bandmates solo efforts.
On another non-musical topic, much ado has been made of System of a
Down’s Armenian ancestry and their push to have Turkey finally
recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
While stressing that these issues are of grave importance to the
band, Dolmayan laments that “the press made a much bigger deal of us
being Armenian than we ever did.”
The press “couldn’t explain us,” he says, because System of a Down
didn’t totally fit in with the embarrassing nu-metal movement they
were unlucky enough to be lumped in with. And when System of a Down
outlasted the nu-metalheads, the Armenian connection received more
ink.
“When people started asking [about our shared ethnic backgrounds],”
Dolmayan explains, “our reaction was to bring up the issue of the
genocide,” in an attempt to use the press to spread their message.
Fans can expect that the band’s political views, which also include a
definite anti-war/anti-Bush stance, to be on full display Sunday
night, along with the heavy and intelligent music the band is known
for. V
Sun, Jun 25 (7 pm)
System of a Down
With Hatebreed, Bad Acid Trip
Rexall Place, $35.50 – $55.50

NKR High-Ranking Officials Begin U.S. Visit
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.06.2006 16:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 23-30, 2006 Nagorno Karabakh Republic
(NKR) National Assembly Speaker Ashot Ghulian and Foreign Minister
Georgi Petrosian will visit Boston, New York and Washington, DC for
a series of political and economic discussions aimed at garnering
stronger support for NKR, while highlighting Karabakh’s progress
during almost 15 years of de-facto independence. NKR leaders will
meet with Bush Administration officials, Members of Congress and the
Armenian-American community.
In Boston, Speaker Ghulian and Foreign Minister Petrosian will meet
with Massachusetts State Assembly representatives, leaders of the
Boston area Armenian-American organizations and members of the Armenian
Community. In New York and New Jersey, the delegation will meet with
major supporters of NKR and take part in community events. On June
26 – 30, NKR senior officials will be in Washington D.C. to discuss
issues related to the settlement of the conflict with Azerbaijan and
increased humanitarian and development assistance.

Nagorno Karabakh FM: Granting autonomy to Nagorno Karabakh is out of Baku competence
Regnum, Russia
June 22 2006
Recently, Azerbaijani Republic FM Elmar Mammadyarov claimed readiness
to grant Nagorno Karabakh the highest status of autonomy adopted in
the world, including the one equal to Tatarstan’s status within the
Russian Federation.
Nagorno Karabakh Republic FM Georgy Petrosyan commented on the issue,
REGNUM correspondent in Stepanakert reported.
“The statement, unless it is another propagandistic ploy, means
that the Azerbaijani leadership is ready for their country’s
federalization. From this viewpoint, one would hope that the
above-mentioned status will be granted to Lezgins, Talyshes, and
other nations residing in Azerbaijan. As for the NKR, with which the
Azerbaijani leadership avoids any contacts, it should be underscored
that official Baku cannot grant any status to Nagorno Karabakh, as the
issue is out of Azerbaijan’s competence. Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s
status is determined within the legal framework by the nation residing
here. The essence of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict is that the
Azerbaijani party failed to resolve issues of the kind and resorted
to armed aggression.”
“Official Baku continues to ignore the reality where the NKR’s
independence is the greatest value of the Republic’s people that
has been declared at a nation-wide referendum on state independence
December 10, 1991. The NKR people not only protected their right to
be in charge of their own fate in the course of the imposed war, but,
for the last 15 years, at least 7 times reaffirmed their will via
democratic nation-wide presidential and parliamentary elections, when
they voted for programs of both individual candidates and political
parties that spoke up for the Republic’s state independence.”

ANCA Launches Action in Support of U.S. Amd. to Armenia John Evans
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.06.2006 17:34 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will
be holding a confirmation hearing for Ambassador Designate to
Armenia Richard Hoagland on Wednesday, June 28th at 2:30pm in
419 Dirksen Senate Office Building. The nomination hearing can
be viewed LIVE on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website
The Armenian National Committee of
America launches an action in support of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia
John Evans. “This may be our last chance to get an honest explanation
about this controversy, before it is swept under the rug by a State
Department all too eager to erase this “inconvenient truth.” Please
take 60 seconds today to call your Senator and leave a message for
his/her Foreign Affairs Legislative Assistant asking them to take
action on this issue,” the ANCA statement says.
To remind, Amb. Evans’ recall was caused by the statement on the
Armenian Genocide he made February 19, 2005 at the meeting with the
Armenian community of California. “Today I will call it the Armenian
Genocide,” John Evans said.

Russia’s VimpelCom, MTS bidding for 90% stake in ArmenTel
21:13 | 22/ 06/ 2006
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 22 2006
ATHENS, June 22 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Bogdanovsky) – VimpelCom [RTS:
VIMP] and Mobile Tele Systems [MTSS] will be among four bidders for
a 90% stake in Armenian telecom company ArmenTel, the share’s owner
said Thursday.
Greek company OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA)
first said it was planning to sell the stake in Armenia’s fixed-line
communications monopolist and a mobile operator in April.
“OTE received a total of 10 non-binding offers for its 90% stake
in ArmenTel, the incumbent telecommunications operator in Armenia,”
OTE said Thursday on its Web site.
But Russia’s two largest mobile operators will face strong competition
from other foreign bidders.
“After reviewing the bids, the following companies were invited to
participate in the next phase of the sale process: a) AO Vimpelcom;
b) Mobile Telesystems (MTS) OJSC; c) The consortium, Emirates
Telecommunications Corporation (ETISALAT) / Istithmar PJSC /
Emergent Telecom Ventures (ETV); d) The consortium, VTEL Holdings /
Knightsbridge Associates,” OTE said.
ArmenTel’s turnover in 2005 was $140 million.
The Armenian government holds 10% in ArmenTel, which with about 330,000
users as of late March 2006 counts just over a tenth of the country’s
population as its clients.
The winner of the tender is expected to be announced after July 20.

Olli Rehn Fights EU Enlargement Fatigue
By Alison Smale and Dan Bilefsky
Focus News, Bulgaria
June 22 2006
22 June 2006 | 20:07 | International Herald Tribune
Olli Rehn, the European Union’s expansion commissioner, issued a
strong call Monday to European leaders to sell enlargement to voters
and not make it a scapegoat of larger policy failures such as high
unemployment and globalization.
“Enlargement blues could be called ‘unemployment blues’ or
‘globalization blues’,” Rehn, a Finn, said in an interview at his
office. “The origins are much deeper in our social fabric.”
Rehn, who has been responsible for enlargement for almost two years,
acknowledged that the policy was a tough sell. On vacation last summer
in France and Germany, he said, he heard popular criticism. “I am not
blind or deaf,” he said. “I could see there is a certain enlargement
fatigue.”
But, he argued, Europeans are often “more rational” than their
governments and can be sold on the notion that the absorption of eight
former communist countries and Cyprus and Malta – all of which became
members in May 2004 – has been a success story, uniting a Continent
previously divided by the Cold War.
“We should not make enlargement a scapegoat for our domestic policy
failures,” he said, adding, “The European Union has been better at
doing enlargement than communicating enlargement.”
For instance, the EU summit meeting last week ended with a statement
trumpeting the success of the May 2004 expansion. “That’s the kind
of thing I want to hear,” Rehn said.
Asked whether European politicians were doing enough of that kind
of talk once they left the summit halls of Brussels, Rehn mentioned
President Jacques Chirac of France as an example of someone who had,
in his view, done that, but declined – in the characteristic manner
of EU officials who must please 25 constituencies – to single out
countries that were not playing their part. When reminded that Chirac
must leave office within a year, he smiled and acknowledged that Chirac
would not be a candidate in next year’s race for the French presidency.
Enlargement “has been a success story,” Rehn said. “The EU should
have all the reasons to be proud of it.” Asked, therefore, why this
pride was not more palpable, he said it was linked to “bad feelings
and social discontent in many EU states.”
He also noted that the expansion in May 2004 was essentially
“yesterday’s news” when it happened because the EU and the new member
states had been so careful to negotiate economic, social, political
and other reforms in advance of membership.
That pattern, he noted, is continuing in the efforts to include new
members from the Balkans and in the case of Turkey.
The summit meeting was also dominated by talk of the 25-nation bloc
having reached its capacity to absorb new members. Rehn stressed,
however, that this was not so much a sign that Europe should not
expand but proof that it could not function smoothly without altering
institutions and operations to reflect that it was no longer a cozy
bloc of a dozen or 15 overwhelmingly West European states.
Romania and Bulgaria are the two nations due to join next, with a
review process this fall to determine whether or not the EU will
stick to the current date of Jan. 1 next year for their admission.
Turkey, which is not expected to complete membership negotiations
for another 10 to 15 years, poses much bigger questions.
Rehn said Turkey had made significant progress in reducing systematic
torture but that the pace of judicial reform guaranteeing freedom of
expression was “more schizophrenic.”
The prosecution of the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk last spring for
remarks acknowledging Turkey’s role in the genocide against Armenians
in the early 20th century was “a disappointment in the beginning,”
said Rehn, who met Pamuk on his last visit to Turkey. Eventually,
however, the case was dropped – resolved in a way, he said, that
should serve as a benchmark for other cases concerning free speech.
He added that skepticism toward Turkey appeared to be softening
in the most unlikely of places, noting that France and Germany –
two countries where politicians and voters are highly critical of
Turkey’s projected EU membership – each awarded the maximum, 12 points,
to Turkey’s act in the recent Eurovision song contest.
Both Romania and Bulgaria have made progress in the key area of
judicial reform, Rehn said, but the EU needs to be sure that the
changes are genuine and likely to last.
Romania has made large strides in the past 18 months, he said, and
Bulgaria has started to do the same, but must stay the course.
Bulgarian legislators had to forgo some vacation last summer to put
necessary changes in place, he noted, and this summer it should be
the prosecutors and judges who stay at work to make convincing changes.
“We can’t say yet that it’s on the right track,” he said. When asked
to specify which changes would convince Brussels, he stressed: “We
can’t start a witch hunt and ask for a certain number of people to
be arrested because that would be against European standards. But we
need to be assured that countries, when they join, have functional
judicial systems.”
As for other Balkan countries – Albania and former Yugoslav republics
that are now independent – Rehn underlined the importance of sticking
to standards set by agreements such as the Dayton accords that
brought peace to Bosnia after the conflict of the 1990s or the likely
international accord now being negotiated on the status of Kosovo,
the Serbian province that has been under UN administration since 1999.
Asked how Balkan leaders could be expected to stick to such criteria
when the EU itself waives its own rules on such matters as national
budget deficits, Rehn said simply, “Of course, applying double
standards is incorrect and counterproductive.” The difference, he
added, is one of degrees.