SWEDEN

SWEDEN
Goteborgs-Posten, Goteborg, Sept. 30: In a situation where the United Nations is shortly expected to put forward a new resolution proposal on Iraq in the security council, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin is doing what he does best -- talking and putting up smoke screens.
Monsieur de Villepin however makes a realistic judgment when he opposes the United States' and Israel's boycott of Yasser Arafat. This man remains and keeps his position with legitimate authority from the Palestinians.
Shining star
The tragedy is that Israel's government through their heedless decision to "eliminate" Arafat, through deportation or something even worse, have made the Palestinian veteran's political star shine brighter than on many a bad day.
ITALY
Corriere della Sera, Milan, Oct. 1: The now-periodic collapse of major utilities, since the mid-August blackout in New York, has relaunched the habit of "doomwriting," an exercise in catastrophic forecasts of collapse.
Each time there follow disputed or inconsistent explanations: a high-tension line is down or a computer has failed, the mass consumption of energy has overloaded an obsolete infrastructure, a fuse has blown.
But is that all? In the search for a more general explanation ... one suspect has come to the fore. Perhaps the organizational and technical systems, in our times, have reached ever less manageable dimensions.
Growing expectations
The so-called revolution of growing expectations in the economy of the last half century can not continue forever -- not with the use of nonrenewable natural resources and atmospheric pollution, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, smog, industrial waste spreading even in our congested cities and suburbs.
SWITZERLAND
Der Bund, Bern, Sept. 30: A whole country without power. Five people die. The economy loses euro100 million. That's what happened on Sunday in Italy, and already fingers are pointing at Switzerland. Others put the blame for the blackout the EU's forced liberalization of the electricity market.
What's the answer? Fact: Switzerland provides half of Italy's imported electricity. We get money from it. We were also involved in the early events that finally led to the lights going out across Italy. So are we also guilty? Together with Italy's other neighbors, Switzerland was able to continue to meet Italy's demands for half an hour despite the loss of one line. They could have done it for longer if the Italian network operator had acted as planned. But it didn't, despite being told of the situation earlier. To that extent it seems somewhat hasty to sneeringly point the finger at the "perfect Swiss," as one big German newspaper did.
Glowing success
The Swiss electricity suppliers justly see the events of Sunday as a success, because along with the other suppliers they were able to prevent the lights going out in other countries. That sort of scenario is possible, as was seen in the United States recently.
Is the liberalization of the energy market also to blame? This argument also doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Switzerland of course has refused to open up its market. Germany, on the other hand, has one of the most open electricity markets in Western Europe. Both countries possess stable electricity supplies.