Eurotopics.net

Luka Modrić has been named Best Fifa Footballer of the year. The Real Madrid midfielder and Croatian national team captain dethroned Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have shared the honour for the past decade. Commentators - in particular the Croatian ones - are delighted at the distinction and that someone else has won the trophy.

Demonstrators have been waving EU flags outside the building hosting the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool ever since the start of the event. They hope the party will change its stance and seek to hold a new Brexit referendum. According to polls, 86 percent of party members back a new vote. Europe's commentators lament Brexit and the loss of Britain's former glory.

Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon announced at the conference of the nationalist Fratelli d'Italia in Rome that he plans to spend most of the next few months in Europe helping far-right parties with their campaign for the European elections. On Sunday he met Czech President Milos Zeman. Commentators explain why they believe his project will fail and how the EU needs to reinvent itself.

The EU Commission has referred Poland to the European Court of Justice for forcing top judges into retirement. It argues that the government in Warsaw's reform of the country's Supreme Court undermined the principle of judicial independence. Commentators welcome the step but fear it comes too late.

On the occasion of a three-day visit to Germany by President Erdoğan, German President Steinmeier has invited the Turkish leader to a state banquet at his residence in Bellevue Palace. Several politicians who are critical of Erdoğan's policies have declined to attend the event. Participants should view the dinner as an opportunity, journalists urge, although their views on what should be achieved differ.