Gândul announces that "counters manned by civil servants in state offices are to be phased out over the next five years and replaced by online tax payment services that will cut through red tape." The Bucharest daily cites Communications Minister, Gabriel Sandu's recent presentation of an update on the eRomânia project officially launched in June 2009, which will shortly come onstream. Sandu took the opportunity to highlight the fact that "every year, Romania's 21-million population spends 180 million hours on 276 kinds of tax." As it stands, the vast majority of Romanians are obliged to queue at state counters to pay their taxes. The burden on companies, which have to contend with an estimated "average of 40 hours of official paperwork per month," is even greater.
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.