Berlin is not Germany
After Tallinn, Paris and Clermont-Ferrand, four journalists and one photographer from our network explore the fourth stop in cafebabel.com’s monthly ‘cities’ mission, ‘EUdebate on the Ground’. This month, a city which was divided just twenty years ago in the cold war. Since then, not only its geography has changed. Relations with neighbouring Poland are vibrant, but very often one-sided. Germans debate about a data retention law and how they can consume more fairly. There’s also a little role for the crisis, seen in images
Online music, copyright and illegal downloads in Berlin
All three topics are now making the rounds at the various political benches around EU member states, who are all trying to contain internet piracy with new means and thereby putting fundamental rights under the microscope. In Brussels, the council of ministers is also pressing the issue against decisions of the EU parliament. Bloggers, politicians and legal representatives of the ‘civil society’ speak
silvio berlusconi, european parliament, copyright, politics, downloads, nicolas sarkozy, best of cafebabel.com, prenzlauer berg
Fair trade with Germany's 'Sukuma initiative'
What do mobile phones have to do with the war in Congo? Why do we, when thinking about coffee, think Starbucks before Colombia? The Germany-based Sukuma initiative is campaigning at an EU level to enforce targets for developing countries, as set out by theUN
international trade, coffee, fair trade, poverty, prenzlauer berg, berlin
Twenty years on: why Berlin is not Germany
The city buzzes with cultural events to commemorate the reunification of Berlin and the European continent. But how do the protagonists of the change view each other - whether they are born after 1990, are pre-1990 migrants or modern-day visitors?
'The Wonderous World of Laundry': forgiving free market in Berlin and Warsaw
The global credit crunch has quickly established it self to be a test of European solidarity. The government in Berlin faces a particularly difficult challenge as 2009 brings them the presidential elections and the elections for European parliament. This is also the time to fulfil the promise of opening up the German labour market to the ten new EU states, including Poland. Will pre-election fever deal with the ever-increasing unemployment on both sides of the Odra River – without compromising the strong relationship between Berlin and Warsaw?
