Eurotopics.net

Federica Mogherini, former EU foreign affairs representative and current head of the College of Europe in Bruges, has been been formally accused of corruption. The European Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating Mogherini, her deputy and EU official Stefano Sannino over alleged secret agreements relating to an EU-funded degree programme at the elite university. Commentators inquire into the causes and consequences.

US emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent five hours on Monday trying to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine. According to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, agreement was reached only 'on a few points', and Washington and Moscow 'still have a lot of work to do'. Both sides agreed to keep quiet about the results of the negotiations. Europe's media see this as treading water.

The presidents of the four Visegrad states – Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland – met in Esztergom, Hungary, on Wednesday. But Poland's right-wing conservative head of state Karol Nawrocki cancelled a planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after Orbán visited Putin in Moscow last week.

France's President Emmanuel Macron has launched a campaign against fake news. He plans to build on the idea of Reporters Without Borders and label media as reliable or unreliable in order to stem the spread of disinformation. His critics accuse him of wanting to control the media and of curbing the freedom of the press. Macron insists that independent experts would award the certificate, not the state.