“The German contribution to the Union budget increases every year, but whatever you do, don’t tell anyone!” According to Fokus magazine, the new EU budget commissioner, Algirdas Šemeta, was so surprised when he discovered Germany’s net contribution to the EU budget (the difference between what it pays Brussels and what it receives from Brussels) for 2008 – €8.8 billion – that he decided from now on to focus the Commission’s communication efforts less on member country contributions than on the increased prosperity thanks to EU subsidies. “These new 'language rules' are making waves in Berlin’s political circles,” reports the German weekly. Gunther Kirchbaum, for example, head of the parliamentary committee in charge of European issues, feels that “the objective ought to be more transparency, and not less”. But whilst Germany’s financial burden goes up every year, notes Fokus, those of other countries – first and foremost the UK – regularly go down. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for its part, points out that in terms of per capita contributions, Germany only comes in 3rd place, after Sweden and Denmark.
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.