Eurotopics.net

Erdoğan is due to meet Putin in Moscow today in a bid to find a solution to the Syria conflict. The Turkish president wants to secure a ceasefire in Idlib, where Turkey and Russia are on the brink of direct confrontation, with more than a million people trying to flee the region. Journalists see Erdoğan in a weakened position as he travels to Moscow.

After inconclusive negotiations in the National Assembly, the French government now wants to push though its controversial pension reform by decree. Commentators discuss whether Emmanuel Macron is undermining democratic principles by resorting to this constitutional instrument.

The EU will pay Greece up to 700 million euros due to the tense situation on its border with Turkey. On her visit to the Greek-Turkish border EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that 350 million euros would be paid immediately for "migration management", and the rest would be made available on demand. Europe's commentaries take differing views of this form of crisis management.

More than 60 years after the death of Pius XII, the Vatican has opened its archives from the era of this controversial pope. Several hundred researchers now plan to investigate the role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and clarify what the then pope knew about the persecution of Jews and why he did not speak out against it. Will they succeed?

In a last-minute move, Italy stopped taking in refugees from Niger at the end of February out of fear of coronavirus. German Interior Minister Seehofer, in turn, has said that every month about 10,000 people who have come via "problematic" countries like Iran enter Germany. Commentators warn that the two issues of coronavirus and migrants are being mixed with each other with negative consequences.