Eurotopics.net

The EPP group in the European Parliament will decide today on whether to exclude Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party. Thirteen of the 48 member parties had called for the move. The Hungarian PM then called critics within the group "useful idiots" of the left, but apologised for the statement in a letter last week. Whether the group will go ahead and expel Fidesz remains unclear.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has resigned after almost 30 years as leader of the former Soviet republic. Parliamentary Speaker Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will take over as president until elections in 2020. Will this bring change to the country?

If the extreme violence continues in the yellow vest protests, bans on demonstrating will be passed for certain areas, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced on Monday. On Saturday the yellow vest rally in Paris once again ended in riots in certain areas. For commentators the confrontation between protests and politics has entered a decisive phase.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is considering holding a referendum on the government's controversial justice system policy. He had "almost resolved" to take this step, he announced on Tuesday. The country's constitutional court last week gave the green light for the referendum to be held on the same day as the European elections. Romania's press examines the opportunities and risks of such a move.

On 18 March 2014 Vladimir Putin signed the agreement on Crimea becoming part of the Russian Federation - two days after a controversial referendum. To this day much of the international community still doesn't recognise the peninsula as part of Russia but as Ukrainian territory. Five years after the annexation commentators describe how it is now perceived in the two countries and among the members of the international community.