"The first shop in Europe where all items are free opens in Barcelona today," reports the Spanish edition of Roumanian daily Adevarul. Access to this new chain that goes under the name of shops Esloutimo is subject to a half-yearly subscription of 5 euros, after which clients can choose 5 products every fortnight. "The goal is to promote both new products and to help a large part of the population," writes Adevarul, which announces that similar ventures will open in Paris, London, Berlin, Rome and Amsterdam. All this coincides with 17 October's World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty. In Europe, reports Spanish daily Público, "79 million people live in poverty". Such were the themes of at the heart of a Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion, held in Stockholm on 15 October. Representatives from NGO's denounced the absence of political will in the adoption of concrete measures. "The objectives of the fight again poverty have been pushed back to 2020," concedes Antonia Carparelli, Head of Social Inclusion Unit at the European Commission, reports the Spanish daily.
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.