At the EU-Western Balkans summit in Sofia the EU has called for more consistent efforts from (potential) accession candidates Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia. In exchange it promised infrastructural measures and additional funding. Commentators discuss the six countries' accession prospects and Russia's role in the region.
The right-wing populist Lega Nord and the protest movement Cinque Stelle have signed a coalition agreement in Italy. The key points: renegotiation of the EU treaties, debt relief for Rome, tax cuts, a basic income and the repeal of the pension reform. Commentators fear Italy is heading towards a confrontation with the EU - and financial disaster.
The EU is taking Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Hungary an Romania to court for exceeding the EU limits on nitrous gases and fine particles. Some commentators are glad to see the EU resorting to legal measures against six states to force them to improve the air quality. Others take the view that this is the wrong approach.
Europe's journalists are preoccupied with the escalation of violence on the border between Gaza and Israel, where at least 60 Palestinians have died in an Israeli military operation against Palestinian demonstrators and Hamas targets. Among the most recent press voices is an article on Palestine's "victim myth" and criticism of Hamas for exploiting Palestinian civil society.
The meeting between German national football team players Mesut Özil and İlkay Gündoğan and the Turkish president continues to cause a stir in Germany. Photographs of the two presenting Erdoğan with jerseys were interpreted as a show of electoral campaign support for the AKP leader. For commentators the episode says much about the integration debate in Germany.
A 19-kilometre bridge now connects the Russian mainland with Crimea, allowing vehicles to cross to the peninsula annexed four years ago by Russia. The US and the EU have criticised the project on the grounds that Crimea is still part of Ukraine in their view. For Russia the bridge is a brilliant strategic move in many respects, commentators write.
North Korea has threatened to cancel the meeting between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, citing the US's "unilateral" demand for nuclear disarmament. Commentators don't believe Kim will really miss this opportunity for a historic meeting. But hopes for a breakthrough on June 12 are not high.
For the Palestinians 15 May 1948 marked the beginning of the Nakba - the Arabic word for "catastrophe". On this day they traditionally commemorate the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homeland as a result of the war waged by Arab states against the newly founded Israel. Journalists take the opportunity to look back on the past.
The Open Society Foundations of Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros has announced that it is moving from Budapest to Berlin. It said the decision was the result of the Orbán government's massive pressure on the organisation. This is bad news for pro-Europeans and pro-democracy activists both in Hungary and the EU, commentators find.
In ten days' time the Irish will vote on whether an amendment to their constitution that bans abortion in almost every situation should be repealed. The government is pushing for liberalisation and wants all abortions before the twelfth week of pregnancy to be legalised. A fierce debate about the pros and cons of such a move is raging in the country's media.