Eurotopics.net

Historians have handed Emmanuel Macron their report on France's role in the Rwandan genocide two years after he commissioned it. They conclude that France bears "heavy and overwhelming responsibilities" for the killings and speak of "blindness" and "failure", but say they found no evidence of French complicity. For commentators, this report can only be a start.

The EU has announced plans to expand the customs union to include Turkey, in a bid to encourage Ankara to find a constructive solution to its disputes with Athens and Nicosia. In 2018, the EU officially decided not to start negotiations with Turkey due to constitutional problems, and in December 2020 it threatened sanctions over Ankara's gas explorations. Why the change of heart?

The front runners are Israel, the US, and the UK. These countries have made much faster progress in vaccinating their populations against the coronavirus than the countries of the EU. Observers look at why the European Union is lagging so far behind and discuss how the speed and acceptance of vaccination can be increased.

Alexei Navalny's health has apparently deteriorated rapidly since he began his prison term in Russia. He complains of acute back pain and numbness in his right leg but has received hardly any medical care. Because he has been classified as "at risk of escaping", he is woken up by prison guards once every hour at night. Observers accuse the Russian state of torture and seek to clarify the motives.

The Slovak government looks set to end its current crisis with an exchange of posts: Prime Minister Igor Matovič is vacating his seat for the former Finance Minister Eduard Heger and taking over the latter's portfolio. Matovič triggered the crisis when he purchased the Russian Covid vaccine Sputnik V without consulting his coalition partners, who then demanded his resignation. Now they have agreed to the exchange of posts instead.