Hot on the heels of the announcement of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, yesterday's EU-Brazil summit in Stockholm is further testament "to the growing importance" of Brazil, notes La Vanguardia. The summit, which, as the Barcelona daily reports, may prove to be a milestone in "President Luís Inácio Lula Da Silva's sixth year in office," is also an acknowledgement "of Brazil's role as global political force." According to La Vanguardia, "Europe is eager to develop closer ties with Lula, who presides over a nation, which is a major economic player and an undisputed leader in Latin America." In the run-up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit (COP15) in December, the EU considers its alliance with Brazil to be even more strategic than its alliances with China, India and United States. For La Vanguardia, the development of closer ties is "historic both for Brazil and the EU, because it is the first time that the EU has sought to establish an alliance of this kind with an emerging nation that aspires to become a world power."
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.