Eurotopics.net

The European Medicines Agency is due to reach a decision on approving the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine today. Once the agency has given the green light, the necessary approval by the EU Commission is considered certain and an EU-wide vaccination campaign could start before the end of the year. Commentators ask what Europe has learned on the long road to vaccine approval.

The abuse scandals and the recent constitutional court ruling on abortion have also sparked a discussion in Poland about the ties between the Catholic Church and politics. The rapid approach of Christmas prompts commentators to reflect on the place of the Church in society and politics today.

All of Europe is struggling with high infection rates, and everywhere the rules have been tightened in recent weeks. Many people won't be able to celebrate Christmas in the accustomed way. The commentaries offer words of encouragement.

Fourteen defendants have been sentenced in the trial over the 2015 attacks on the editorial offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris. The main defendant has been given a 30-year jail sentence. He is deemed to have been the right-hand man of one of the three attackers shot dead by security forces. Almost six years on, can France put the attacks behind it?