Eurotopics.net

The international community will meet in Marrakesh on December 10 and 11 to ratify the UN migration pact. But as the conference draws closer more and more countries are announcing that they don't want to sign the pact - most recently Italy, following several Eastern European countries and Austria. The non-binding agreement is meant to help control the flow of refugees and migration. What makes the pact so contentious?

The state board for Lower Saxony of Germany's largest Islamic association, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (Ditib), has resigned in protest at what it says is excessive influence from Ankara. Yilmaz Kilic, the chairman, of the board, said that representatives of the Turkish embassy had tried to influence the board's work. Commentators say Germany should crack down on Turkish influence-peddling.

Romania's Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has suggested that Romanian citizens should only be given working permits in other EU countries for a maximum of five years. After that they should either move on or come home, he said. After a wave of indignation in reaction to this proposal, he toned down his views via Facebook. Romania's media are nonetheless indignant.

After the military confrontation on the Sea of Azov France and Germany have declined to introduce new sanctions against Moscow for the time being. Diplomats from both countries want to appeal to the OSCE to defuse the conflict. Europe's journalists express their views on how the international community should react to the incident.

In a speech on the energy transformation on Tuesday Emmanuel Macron reacted to the demands put forward by yellow vest protesters. He proposed to base fuel tax hikes on the price of oil and launch a nationwide three-month consultation on the social aspects of the energy transformation. Will the French president be able to appease the yellow vests with this approach?