Eurotopics.net

The controversial pig farm on the grounds of a former concentration camp for Roma in the Czech Republic is being shut down. The agricultural company agreed to an offer from the government to buy the land and tear down the facility in the village of Lety in South Bohemia. Commentators are relieved to see a battle that lasted 20 years end this way.

In the eyes of one Google developer, women are less suited to working in the tech industry than men for biological reasons. Google took action and fired the man who published his opinion in a ten-page internal "manifesto". The case has also triggered debate among Europe's journalists.

At the beginning of August 2007 the US real estate bubble burst, bringing banks across the world to their knees. A year later the financial crisis came to a head when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Commentators doubt the world has learned the right lessons from this experience.

The new sanctions are intended to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear programme. They received an unanimous vote of approval in the UN Security Council last weekend. For many commentators, however, sanctions alone are not enough.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced plans to set up hotspots in Libya as early as this summer, before retracting the statement just a few hours later. The security situation in the country precludes such a move, the Elysée announced, adding that feasibility studies would be carried out for Libya's border region with Niger and Chad. Europe's commentators weigh up the pros and cons of Macron's initiative.

One country after another is making moves to ensure that diesel and petrol engines become a thing of the past: Paris, Madrid, Athens and Helsinki plan to ban their production by 2025, with London following suit in 2040. In Germany the cartel scandal that has hit the automotive industry has added fuel to the debate. But commentators see bans as the wrong approach for various reasons.