Eurotopics.net

Monday was World Environment Day. Every June 5 since 1972, the United Nations has launched worldwide campaigns aimed at environmental and climate protection. The press seizes the occasion to make a global environmental assessment - and the conclusions are far from reassuring.

The new leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) is not Hans-Peter Doskozil, as announced on Saturday, but Andreas Babler. It was only by chance - because the ballot papers were recounted due to a missing vote - that the election committee discovered that the vote counts of the two candidates had been mixed up when they were transferred to an Excel spreadsheet. Shock and dismay in the press.

Several hundred thousand people demonstrated against the Polish government in Warsaw on Sunday. The mass protest was triggered by a new law on the establishment of a commission to investigate Russian influence in the country. Critics fear the ruling PiS intends to abuse the law to exclude opposition politicians from office without a court order. Poland will elect a new parliament in autumn.

At its second summit the European Political Community (EPC) - founded last year and comprising 47 states - sought to sharpen its profile. The confrontation with Russia and solidarity with Ukraine set the tone. In the wake of the meeting commentators ask what else the EPC can achieve in Europe.