European Union

Journalists working for the Austrian public broadcaster ORF are to refrain from posting comments on social media "that can be interpreted as approval, rejection or evaluation of statements or as expressing sympathy, antipathy, criticism or 'polemics' towards political institutions or their representatives". Draft social media guidelines to this effect were leaked last week. Journalists are incensed.

A year after her death the French Auschwitz survivor and women's rights activist Simone Veil has been given the rare honour of being buried at the Panthéon in Paris. France's media also honour Veil's commitment to Europe - she was a president of the EU Parliament from 1979 to 1982 - and examine the continuing relevance of her ideas on European policy.

As of July 1 public transport with buses and trains has been free of charge. The policy, which has been in effect in Tallinn since 2013, has now been extended to the rest of the country, with the exception of four rural districts. According to Estonia's minister of economic affairs Kadri Simson free transport will make it easier for people with low and average incomes to remain mobile. Estonia's press isn't convinced.

High on Kosovo's Kika mountain plateau workers are building the Balkan nation's first wind turbines, in an effort to eliminate the country's massive reliance on coal and end power outages.

Hard security realities and Russia continue to govern Armenia's destiny despite its recent revolution.

Merkel's interior minister Horst Seehofer has threatened to resign over asylum. The bitter dispute risks tipping the historic balance between the centre-right CDU party and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU.

With the Polish minister of justice now enjoying the ability to dismiss and appoint heads of courts, there is concern about the "chilling effect" that this may have on judges.

EU students starting in English universities in autumn 2019 will pay the same tuition fees as English students, UK education secretary Damian Hinds said, according to British media. This status will last for the duration of their degree courses. The Scottish government has made a similar commitment to EU students starting in Scottish universities in autumn 2019. There are about 135,000 EU students in UK universities.

Leader of Italy's far-right League, Matteo Salvini, said on Sunday at the party's annual gathering that he wants to create a pan-European association of nationalist parties and turn next year's European Parliament election into a referendum on immigration and job security. "I am thinking of a League of the Leagues of Europe" he said. A survey in Saturday's Corriere della Sera newspaper polled Salvini's League at 31.2 percent support.

Thousands gathered in Paris on Sunday to pay tribute to Simone Veil, Holocaust survivor and women's rights champion, when she was laid to rest in the Pantheon, France's burial place for some of its most honoured citizens. Veil became the first president of the directly elected European Parliament in 1979 and the first woman to hold the post. She died on 30 June 2017 at the age of 89.

In a bid to calm tensions Spain's new socialist government allowed nine high-profile Catalan separatists in custody to be moved to prisons closer to their home region. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has also agreed to meet Catalonia's secessionist president, Quim Torra, in Madrid on 9 July, which will be the first meeting between a Spanish prime minister and a Catalan regional leader since January 2017.

Croatia has officially become a high-income country, according to the World Bank's new income classifications lowering the thresholds for a classification as a high-income country to $12,055 GNI per capita. Only two EU member states, Romania and Bulgaria, are not in the top-class. They both rank in the second best class as upper-middle income countries with GNI per capita between $3,896 and $12,055.