Eurotopics.net

Bulgaria is on track to join the Eurozone on 1 January 2026. On 4 June the EU Commission is expected to publish a positive convergence report confirming that Bulgaria has met all the accession criteria and giving it the green light. Now, however, President Rumen Radev has applied the brakes and called for a referendum that could stop the introduction of the single currency. The national press objects.

After the most intense fighting in decades in the conflict over the divided Kashmir region, India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration. European commentators fear that the truce between the two nuclear powers is fragile.

More than 100,000 demonstrators marched against corruption under President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on Saturday. Observers talk of this being the biggest popular rally since the fall of Slobodan Milošević 25 years ago. The months-long unrest was triggered by the fatal collapse of a roof at Novi Sad train station, which has been blamed on shoddy construction and cronyism. Europe's press chimes in.

US President Trump is giving Nato the cold shoulder, alienating the US's allies and negotiating with Putin on the war in Ukraine without involving the Europeans. Both the EU and the individual member states are mobilising funds for defence, Paris is extending its nuclear umbrella and London is forming new alliances. The media discuss Europe's security model in transition.