Eurotopics.net

The European Parliament's renowned Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has gone to the opposition in Belarus in 2020. The award honours the Coordination Council, activists like Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and committed personalities like Svetlana Alexievich, the Parliament declared. Europe's press questions whether the 50,000 euros in prize money are a significant show of support.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have squared off in their second and final TV debate. This time the discussion was more tempered than in the first debate, in which Trump barely let Biden get a word in and both candidates insulted each other. Almost 50 million Americans have already voted by mail. Were the candidates able to win over undecided voters last night?

In response to a legal challenge brought by right-wing conservative MPs, the Constitutional Court in Poland has ruled that abortion on the grounds of severe foetal defects violates the constitution. The ruling further tightens Poland's abortion law, which is already one of the strictest in Europe. According to the media the ruling is the result of political rather than legal considerations.

A no-confidence motion brought by the far-right Vox party against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has failed in the Spanish parliament. In his speech, opposition leader Pablo Casado distanced himself with unprecedented clarity from Vox, the support of which has enabled his conservative Partido Popular (PP) to form a government in several regions of Spain. The country's media applaud Casado's move and discuss the reasons for it.

The EU member states reached an agreement on Wednesday on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. In future, 20 percent of each EU country's direct payments to farmers must be reserved for organic regulations. The current subusidies system is mainly based on the area cultivated and has been blamed for the decline of small farms and biodiversity. Observers are sceptical about whether this compromise will bring true change.