Eurotopics.net

Latvia's government is giving families a one-off payment of 500 euros per child to support them in the coronavirus crisis. The parliament in Riga on Thursday approved the measure - which according to the Ministry of Welfare will cost around 182 million euros - after Finance Minister Janis Reirs and other members of government had long opposed it. Latvian commentators say Riga has not cut a good figure.

Romanian parliamentarians on Wednesday passed a law abolishing the privilege of special pensions for MPs and senators, which are paid out of the state treasury once their mandate ends. The cost of financing the pensions had recently reached 6.9 million euros annually. Is this a victory for justice or are the MPs buying themselves a good conscience at a bargain price?

Italy's new prime minister Mario Draghi presented his government programme on Wednesday. Draghi announced that he would fight the crisis "with all the means at his disposal". In his first major speech to Parliament, he also focused on long-term reform plans for the economy and administration. Most commentators respond positively to the new PM's address.

Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél was arrested and taken to jail on Tuesday after being sentenced to nine months' behind bars for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy. In the lyrics of one of his songs, Hasél had called Spain's former king Juan Carlos a thief and a mafia boss, and called for right-wing politicians to be shot. Is the prison sentence justified?

With over four million infections and more than 117,000 deaths, Britain is one of the countries most severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, and its crisis management has been widely criticised. But now the UK is taking the lead in terms of vaccination: 90 percent of the over-70s have already received the jab, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to promise a "cautious but irreversible" lockdown lifting.