Eurotopics.net

In the discussion about the right vaccination strategy, the view is gaining traction that those who have been vaccinated should enjoy certain advantages - for example in terms of travel, access to certain facilities or at the workplace. Certain politicians hope that with this strategy they will be able to persuade people in the many countries where the willingness to be vaccinated is currently too low to achieve the target of herd immunity.

The Crown, the Netflix series about the British royal family, has now become a political issue. The UK's Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has called for a warning to appear at the beginning of each episode clarifying that The Crown is fiction. "I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact," he said.

The newly elected President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has announced that she wants the Russian peacekeeping forces in the secessionist region of Transnistria to be replaced by a civilian OSCE observer mission. Russian units have been stationed there since the collapse of the Soviet Union, guarding border crossings and a huge ammunition depot. The foreign ministry in Moscow has not reacted well to the plan. Journalists examine the interests at stake.

Parliamentary groups in Estonia are allowed to spend six million euros a year on "regional investments". With this money the parties usually support projects that they consider a good cause. Now the country's three coalition partners want to pay 171,000 euros to a newly established association of anti-abortionists. A politicised issue!

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. The first 800,000 Britons are to be vaccinated with BNT162b2 as early as next week. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was proud that the UK had become the first state to approve a Covid-19 vaccine. But not all commentators see the express approval as a major step forward.