Eurotopics.net

At the next meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on 8 December, a vote will be taken on whether Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania should be admitted to the Schengen Area from 2023. Schengen enlargement requires a unanimous decision. However, due to concerns about migration policy and the fight against corruption, some EU member states have voiced reservations about admitting Bulgaria and Romania.

The protests against the government's strict zero-Covid policy continue in several Chinese cities. There have also been calls for the resignation of President Xi Jinping. The protests were preceded by a fire in a residential building in the Xinjiang region that killed ten people. The strict lockdown currently in force there is likely to have delayed the rescue operation. Europe's press assesses the significance of the protests.

Between three and seven million people died of starvation in Ukraine in the winter of 1932-1933. The famine, known as the Holodomor ("killing by hunger"), was the result of a deliberate policy by Stalin. Among other measures, despite the crop failures of previous years large parts of the yields of Ukrainian farmers were confiscated and redirected to the cities. The current war is giving new impetus to efforts to have the Holodomor classified as genocide.