Eurotopics.net

While developments in the Ukraine crisis are posing problems to countries across the EU, they are particularly menacing in Eastern Europe, where states are considering whether to adopt a clearer stance. This is reflected in the commentary columns.

A petition against the digital exclusion of the old and the poor has collected almost 400,000 signatures on change.org: Carlos San Juan de Laorden, a resident of Valencia, is calling for more human customer care at bank branches instead of digitisation: "I am almost 80 years old and it makes me very sad that the banks have forgotten older people like me," he said. The national press is sympathetic to his cause.

Share prices the world over plummeted at the start of the week. The US's benchmark index the Dow Jones dipped by 3.1 percent at one point on Monday, and the German Dax index by 3.8 percent. Both have recovered slightly in the meantime. Commentators look for reasons for the uncertainty on the stock markets - and ask whether security is at all feasible.

As in Greece, heavy snowstorms have brought public life in Turkey to a standstill. On Monday more than 5,000 people were left stuck in traffic jams in Istanbul and had to be rescued. The new airport and the Ankara-Istanbul motorway were closed for several hours. Turkish commentators take different views of the extent to which Istanbul's mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is to blame.

Negotiations on the Ukraine conflict continue, but no results have been published since the meeting between Russia and the US on Friday. In the meantime, several European states have increased their military presence in Eastern Europe and the US has put 8,500 soldiers on alert. Russia criticised the move as an escalation. Commentators oscillate between optimism and concern.