An Sderot resident, with dual Isreli and French nationality, has launched a legal battle to make the EU pay to fortify his home and compensate for losses incurred during Hamas strikes from the nearby Gaza strip. Eyal Katorza has lost his job and his mother's shop has closed down due to the rockets which hit the area on average 3-4 times a day. He is also filing for "psychological damages," reports euobserver.com. According to Mr Katorza's lawyers, the EU is obliged to protect its citizens under the EU Treaty.
The eight page draft legal complaint also urges the estimated 300,000 EU citizens living in Israel to join. The document further accuses the EU of allowing aid to the occupied Palestinian territories to get "into the hands of persons and organisations who actually finance and perpetrate terrorism." The $408 million of EU aid to the Palestian territories has long attracted criticism from Jewish rights groups. The EU, however, insists that the vast majority of the money is paid via a financial mechanism designed to ensure that the funds are used strictly for humanitarian purposes.
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.