“Jean-Claude Trichet calls for a European finance ministry to shield the euro and advocates a confederation that will apply a common fiscal policy over the long term,” leads El Mundo. On July 10, at an annual Economic Forum in Aix-en-Provence, the ECB President called for a common tax policy with “a minister and a Federal Ministry.” “The difficulties in organising the second bailout in Greece continue to put in stark relief the urgency of strengthening the economic governance of the EU,” El Mundo writes. “The crisis of Europe affects far more than just Europe”, adds the newspaper, which believes the proposal of Trichet “should be heard out” since it would allow the public debt of the twenty-seven states to be unified and would “put an end” to attacks by speculators against the weaker economies in the eurozone.
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.