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Total Episode Runtime (hh:mm:ss): 00:26:24

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Episode Description:

European Journal is now available on PegMedia.org in both English and Spanish! Each week will have two files, one in English labelled "European Journal" and one in Spanish labelled "Europa Semanal" in the title.

For a full description of this week's episode in Spanish, go to: www.dw.de/europasemanal and click on "emision".

Coming up this week on European Journal - the news magazine from Brussels ---

Greece: A New Political Force Emerges: The new Independent Greeks party is using anti-German slogans to garner votes. Polls suggest the right-wing, anti-austerity group could end up as the third strongest party in the upcoming parliamentary election. The founder of the Independent Greeks is Panos Kammenos, a former New Democracy MP who was ousted from the conservative party's parliamentary group after he refused to back President Lucas Papademos. Since then Kammenos has been stirring up resentment against Germany's role in the Greek bailout. The party's official founding session took place in Distomo, the scene of Nazi atrocities during World War Two. Kammenos rejects what he calls "blackmail" by the EU and IMF and is calling on Berlin to pay war reparations to Athens.

Spain: The Egg Trade: Jobs have become scarce in Spain as a result of the economic crisis. Now some Spanish women are trying to earn a living by becoming a paid egg donor. In some cases, they are risking their health. Young university students are among those looking to become egg donors. They see it as an easy way to earn money - up to 1,000 euros per donation. Many women donate several times a year, even though doing so is risky to their health. Although Spain’s ethics commission has enacted limits on egg donation, these are nearly impossible to enforce, in part because donated eggs are a lucrative business for fertility clinics. Even though Spain is regarded as a stronghold of Catholicism, its laws on reproductive medicine are among the most liberal.

Britain: Shell’s Enemy No. 1: John Donovan is a thorn in the side of the Shell oil group. For the past ten years, he has been posting about environmental abuses and other shortcomings at the global oil concern. John Donovan’s campaign against Shell has already cost the company dearly. He supplied the Russian government with information about lax safety standards at the Sakhalin II oil-drilling project. Moscow took advantage of the revelations to divest Shell of its majority stake in the project in favor of the Russian oil company Gazprom. The source of Donovan’s vendetta against Shell has its roots in a personal dispute: Donovan was involved in a number of marketing campaigns with Shell, and later accused the company of violating intellectual property agreements. After Donovan’s own company went bankrupt, he became one of the biggest critics of the Shell group.

Bulgaria: Collecting Taxes with a Song: When the sound of folk songs wafts through the air of the Bulgarian town of Sopot, residents know that another tax dodger is being serenaded. The campaign has been a boon for the municipal tax coffers. The town’s mayor came up with the novel tax collection method, drawing on his own sense of humor along with the knowledge that the residents of his town have a strong sense of dignity and personal honor. The idea has proven a success - rather than face further humiliation, the serenaded tax dodgers tend to pay up quickly. Now tax officials from Greece are also looking into the unusual tax collection idea.

For more on the program and a Flash preview - visit the European Journal website at www.dw.de/europeanjournal

Please note that a one time Deutsche Welle license agreement is required to broadcast Deutsche Welle programs. See the series' general description for details or email us at dwusa@mac.com. Please include your organization's legal name and address so we can include it in an agreement.

File Name of Episode: 0070 EuropeanJournal 05072012.mpg

Date Episode Uploaded: Monday, May 7, 2012 - 06:49

Downloads of This Episode: 47