Soccer Hero Matthäus Continues Battle With Bayern Munich

Former Bayern Munich soccer star Lothar Matthäus is set to continue a long-standing legal battle with his old club. The German sports hero, now a coach for Partizan Belgrade, claims that Bayern Munich still owes him money from his career finale testimonial match in 2000. Matthäus, who represented his country a record 150 times and was West Germany's captain when it won the World Cup in 1990, filed a €500,000 ($530,000) lawsuit against Bayern. Reports indicated that he had decided to drop his case last week. But the German soccer legend’s lawyer announced on Tuesday that he would still be seeking money from the club. Bayern Munich told Reuters, "Contrary to earlier comments from Lothar Matthäus his legal representatives are continuing to demand payments of one million marks (€5 million)." The club claims to have paid Matthäus the correct amount. After tax and costs were deducted from the 9.447 million deutschmarks, the player received 3.927 million marks.

National Education Standards Proposed

Proposals for reforms of Germany's education system calling for national standards were revealed on Tuesday at the annual Education Standards Conference. Conference President Karin Wolff announced that federal standards for German, math and foreign languages would be introduced for the 2004/2005 school year. An independent institution will be responsible for ensuring that standards are maintained. The reforms come against the backdrop of the last year’s PISA report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which ranked the German education system 21 out of 32 countries surveyed in terms of reading literacy. Educators and education experts in Germany agree that differences in expectations and marking between the German states must be overcome. “It isn’t right that when a student moves states it can take up to two years to bridge the gap in standards,” green Party education spokeswoman Grietje Bettin told the news agency dpa.

Interior Minister Calls for More Cross-Border Policing

German Interior Minister Otto Schily backed the creation of an enhanced European cross-border police system at the European Policing Conference in Bonn on Tuesday. The controversial Europol plan aims to pool European policing resources so that border police will have more means to prevent offences such as terrorist acts or illegal immigration. "I am convinced that the security challenges of the future will only be efficiently addressed by institutionalized cross-border police cooperation," Schily said. The minister also proposed that national border control authorities take responsibility for policing the European Union's external borders.

The two day-conference hosts over 500 security experts from 29 European countries.
On Monday, Schily and his Czech counterpart, Stanislav Gross, launched the first common patrol of German and Czech border guard police.

No Traffic Congestion Tax in Germany

Two prominent German groups said on Tuesday there is no place in their country for a congestion tax like the one levied on drivers in London. Since Tuesday drivers there must pay €7.50 ($8.00) to bring their cars into the city center. "We don't want to create a new city gate," a spokesman for the German Cities Association said in Cologne. He noted that some of Germany's biggest cities -- Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne -- are already implementing traffic-reduction programs. Europe's biggest automobile association, Germany's ADAC, said a similar program in German would cause unnecessary problems. "A congestion charge will not reduce traffic at all, it will simply shift it into the suburbs," ADAC President Peter Meyer told the news agency dpa.

Compiled from wire reports