Today the Belgian press is paying its respects to Karel Van Miert, ex-European commissioner, who on June 22, at the age of 67, died of heart failure after falling from a ladder in his garden. De Standaard devotes its front page to this “affable” statesman, who served as head of the Flemish Socialist Party (SP.A) and as European commissioner for ten years – first for transport and consumer policy, later for competition. For the Flemish daily, he left his mark on both Belgian and European politics: in the 1980s, Van Miert succeeded in “ridding the Socialist party of its sectarian, authoritarian style in favour of an open-minded Social Democratic approach”. De Standaard even wonders whether “the SP.A ever really got over Van Miert's departure” when he left to join the Commission. Initially nicknamed the “little Belgian", he soon earned respect, building up “a solid reputation for himself entirely under his own steam and by putting his convictions across”.concurrence.
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.