Eurotopics.net

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has presented a plan called the "Competitiveness Compass" which aims to boost the European economy's global competitiveness. The strategy is based on the report presented in September by former ECB chief Mario Draghi. "Europe has everything it needs to succeed in the race to the top," von der Leyen said. Not all commentators share her optimism.

Salwan Momika, who was on trial in Sweden for burning the Quran, has been shot dead. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said that there was a risk that 'foreign powers' were behind the killing. Momika was charged with carrying out a series of public Quran burnings in 2023 that led Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei to accuse Sweden of waging a war against the Muslim world.

A majority of the German Bundestag on Wednesday approved a non-binding motion put forward by the CDU/CSU faction to tighten the country's migration policy, which includes the introduction of permanent border controls. The vote was hotly contested as it passed with the votes of the AfD, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist organisation. Europe's press weighs in.