Eurotopics.net

Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut was sentenced to eight years of hard labour in a penal colony on Wednesday by a court in Minsk. He has been in pre-trial detention since March 2021. The Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent was convicted on charges of endangering national security through his anti-government reporting. Poland's press is shaken.

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand occupy top slots in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by NGO Transparency International. Somalia, Syria and South Sudan were ranked as the most apparently corrupt countries, while Turkey and Hungary dropped several notches. The index is compiled with the help of expert assessments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to London on Wednesday, where he addressed Parliament and met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He then flew to Paris where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. On Thursday he is scheduled to address the EU Parliament in Brussels and attend the EU Summit. Europe's press analyses his priorities.

In addition to anti-inflation measures and the Ukraine war, migration policy is at the top of the agenda at the EU leaders' summit taking place this Thursday and Friday. Eight member states are calling for more restrictive asylum laws and tougher measures to combat illegal immigration, including EU financing for border fences. Others stress the need to continue to offer legal paths for immigration to the EU.