Switzerland has announced a Ukraine peace conference for 15 June. The government in Bern said that there was sufficient international support for a high-level meeting to initiate the peace process, in response to a corresponding request by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia has already announced that it will not be attending. What can the initiative achieve?
The French National Assembly has unanimously agreed to ban the manufacture, import and sale of products containing PFAS from 2026 - with the exception of kitchenware such as coated pans, which were excluded from the ban due to pressure from manufacturers. PFAS stands for perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds. These chemicals are extremely persistent and suspected of being carcinogenic. Commentators take a critical view of the exception.
Climate protection is a human right: this was established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday when it ruled that Switzerland had violated the right to protection from serious adverse effects of climate change with an inadequate climate policy. The case was brought by the association Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland. Commentators discuss the ruling and its potential consequences.
In Spain, around 500,000 undocumented migrants could be given the same legal status as Spanish citizens after a popular initiative was approved by an overwhelming majority in the lower house of the Spanish parliament on Tuesday. If the Senate also votes in favour, migrants who arrived before 1 November 2021 will receive residence and work permits and access to social benefits. Commentators praise the cross-party consensus.
Now it's a certainty: following the collapse of the grand coalition between the Gerb-SDS (conservative) and PP-DB (liberal, pro-European) alliances Bulgaria is headed for another snap election. This election, the sixth within three years, has been scheduled for 9 June, coinciding with the European elections. Until then an interim government under Dimitar Glavchev (Gerb) will take the helm. The national press is less than enthusiastic.
A 28-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her ex-partner outside a police station in an Athens suburb on Monday night. She had asked the police to drive her home because she felt threatened, but they told her to call the police emergency number 100 instead. When she did, she was turned down with the words "We're not a taxi service". The national press sees serious problems with the police.
Dismay at the political course in neighbouring Slovakia is growing in the Czech Republic: first Robert Fico has made a comeback as PM and now Fico's aide Peter Pellegrini has been elected as president. In particular the different attitudes towards Putin are putting a strain on the traditionally close relations between these two countries with a shared history.
The national-conservative former ruling party PiS has emerged as the strongest force in the regional and local elections held in Poland on Sunday. But despite the opposition's success, the governing camp managed to secure similar results to those it obtained in the parliamentary elections last October and retain the key mayoral posts in Warsaw and Gdansk.
In twelve out of 98 Danish municipalities, there are at present certain times when the swimming pools are reserved for used by women only. This service, which is usually available outside the normal opening hours, is aimed particularly at Muslim women, but Denmark's Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bekab has criticised the special arrangement. Commentators in the national press express varying degrees of scepticism.
Peter Pellegrini will be Slovakia's new president. The Social Democrat, who supports the Fico government's pro-Russian course, won the run-off election on Saturday with a lead of more than six percentage points against the candidate from the pro-Western liberal camp, Ivan Korčok. Europe's press fears the emergence of a new alliance.
Six months have passed since the attack on Israel by the radical Islamic organisation Hamas. The militias killed over 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Israel's attempt to defeat the terrorist organisation for good with an offensive in Gaza has so far failed: there are still around 130 hostages and Hamas is still fighting. Meanwhile, criticism of the high number of civilian deaths and the humanitarian disaster in the area is growing ever louder. The Israeli army has now partially withdrawn from the south of the Gaza Strip.