Eurotopics.net

The foreign ministers of the G7 countries and the EU demonstrated unity in the Ukraine crisis at their meetings on Sunday and Monday. There will be "tough diplomatic and economic consequences" if Russian soldiers cross the border into Ukraine, Germany's new Foreign Minister Baerbock warned. Commentators discuss the best approach for the West.

At the latest since Germany's new SPD chancellor Olaf Scholz took office, Europe's centre-left parties see themselves on the advance after a long dry spell. Commentators discuss what needs to happen for the former workers' parties to set new standards in Europe.

Former Danish integration minister Inger Støjberg has been sentenced to 60 days in prison for misconduct in office. In 2016, she ordered that an asylum-seeking couple from Syria be separated because the woman was a minor. The ministry's order to always follow this procedure when one partner was a minor was unlawful, Denmark's Court of Impeachment ruled. Commentators applaud the decision.

There has been a surprising turn of events in the dispute over the new government in Prague: with the threat that he would lodge a constitutional complaint, future prime minister Petr Fiala has forced President Miloš Zeman to appoint his entire line-up of ministers - including Jan Lipavský (of the Pirate Party), whom Zeman had determined was not qualified to be foreign minister. Commentators look forward to a government that can finally start to govern.

The High Court in London has overturned the extradition ban on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Whether the whistleblower will really be extradited to the US has not yet been decided, however, as his lawyers have announced their intention to appeal. While some media fear that such action against a journalist could set a negative precedent, others insist that the ruling must be accepted.