“The EU struggles for unity on Syrian arms embargo,” notes the European Voice. The weekly explains that “an Anglo-French bid to end the European Union's ban on the sale of arms to rebel forces in Syria appears doomed to failure,” because “opposition to ending the ban on arms sales has, if anything, hardened.”

In February, the UK and France succeeded in persuading other member states to ease the arms embargo and back a move allowing the supply of non-lethal military items, such as communications and logistics equipment, to rebel forces battling Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Now, following talks between French President François Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron on May 22, even Paris and London seem to have cooled on the idea, principally due to fears weapons could fall into Islamists’ hands. The newspaper continues –

There are significant divisions among member states over Syria, principally on three issues. Austria has been particularly vocal in opposing the easing of arms restrictions on the rebels, questioning the need and the impact. Sweden has been the most reluctant to accept the longer-term trend, towards tougher sanctions against the regime of Assad, arguing that that would limit the space for a political solution. In addition, in recent months, the Czech Republic has been vocal in questioning the quality of the control over rebel forces exercised by the rebels' major political body, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC).

The embargo will be debated at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on May 27 ahead of a June 1 deadline for its renewal or cancellation. Meanwhile a new US and Russian-backed Syrian peace conference has been arranged for early June in Geneva, which could see the SNC attend talks with members of the Syrian government.

For the Moldovans, the Europe Day celebrations began on May 18 and will continue until May 26. They did not coincide with the May 9 ceremonies elsewhere in Europe, because on that date, the Moldovan government preferred to commemorate WWII Victory Day in the presence of Russian Deputy Premier, Dmitri Rogozine. In the Jurnal de Chişinău, Petru Bogatu deplores what he terms “an abundant flow of misery in the Grand National Assembly Square.” The noted op-ed writer continues —

The orgies indulged in by the Russians on the occasion of ‘Victory Day’ are proof that, 22 years after our declaration of independence, we have plumbed new depths in shiftless politics. With regard to European standards, the behaviour of our leaders can best be described as ‘anything goes’.

The Europe Day celebrations were opened by the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, who called on Moldovan authorities to do “all they could for the democratisation of the Republic.” However, Jurnal de Chişinău insists that Russia ”has reconquered Moldova without tanks or artillery.” The newspaper adds that “President Putin’s emissary has indicated the next road, leads east rather than west,” and voices its hope that the new Leancă government, confirmed on May 15, will extricate the country from this ambiguity.

More than €3bn in reconstruction aid for the 2013-2014 period was pledged to part of the Sahel region at a Mali Donors' Conference held in Brussels on May 15, reports Germany daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This is "significantly more than the €2bn initially expected," the daily adds.

Principal donors include Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the United States, the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.

The money will be used to reconstruct the economic and social framework damaged during the war currently underway against Islamic militias in Northern Mali, providing funds to the agriculture and infrastructure sectors, FAZ says.

Another German daily, Süddeutsche Zeitung, however, notes that what Mali needs, first and foremost, is a government formed after democratic elections, currently scheduled for July, and that in Brussels –

very few people have illusions that the Malian state is capable of pulling itself up by its bootstraps any time soon. It will be many years before its fragmented and poorly-qualified army will be able to replace the [United Nations'] Blue Helmets or the French special forces.

Yulia Tymoshenko was arrested unlawfully and for political reasons, according to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on April 30.

Tymoshenko was detained in 2011 and jailed for seven years for “abuse of office” in relation to her role in signing a gas deal with Russia. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, “the unprecedented ruling of the Strasbourg judges, who previously avoided taking such an explicit position in political disputes, leaves Kiev with little room for manoeuvre.

Leaving Tymoshenko in jail will destroy the Ukraine’s hopes of signing an EU association agreement that has been initially scheduled for the autumn in Vilinius”.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić’s April 29 visit to Zagreb has marked a thaw in Serbian-Croatian relations, which had been deadlocked in the wake of the election of nationalist Tomislav Nikolić as President of Serbia.

Vučić believes that following Croatia’s accession to the EU, cooperation between the two countries will be reinforced, reports Danas.

For his part, Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić announced that both countries are planning to take part in talks on the withdrawal of genocide proceedings relating to the 1991-95 war, which have been filed with the International Court of Justice by the two states.

President Nicolae Timofti appointed Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leancă, of the Liberal Democrat Party (PLDM) to lead the government on April 23, following the Constitutional Court’s decision to invalidate his previous decree to appoint Vlad Filat (PLDM).

Suspected of corruption, Filat was forced to step down on March 5 following a vote of no confidence. According to the Constitutional Court, he is no longer entitled to lead the government.

The European Union eased sanctions against Syrian rebel-controlled areas on April 22, approving trade in Syrian oil and related industries, writes the European Voice. EU firms may now buy and sell oil, provide machinery to petrochemical companies and provide investment in the oil sector, on condition they receive the approval of the rebel government, the Syrian National Council, says the news website. A trade embargo was imposed on Syrian leader Bashar al Assad’s regime in September 2011, in an effort to encourage him to negotiate with rebel forces. European Voice adds that

The partial rollback of the EU's extensive sanctions regime, which came at the suggestion of Germany, is the first relaxation of the EU's sanctions. It is not, however, expected in the short term to boost significantly the economy in rebel-controlled areas.

Before the conflict began in March 2011, the EU had purchased almost all of Syria’s oil, worth around $3bn (€2.3bn) in 2010.

European Union member states have reached a preliminary agreement to ease an embargo on Syrian oil exports in what would be the first easing of sanctions since the beginning of President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on popular dissent two years ago.

The International Herald Tribune says diplomatic sources devised the agreement to give opposition-held areas greater autonomy and flexibility to build an economic base through petroleum resources.

Pending a review of senior Union officials, European foreign ministers will consider endorsing the draft agreement on Monday. Further legislative steps could be required for the embargo to be eased.

Syrian opposition representatives, meanwhile, have stepped up calls for the Union to end a weapons embargo slated to expire at the end of May, reports the Irish Times.

Easing the embargo is “the only way” to stop the bloodshed, argued Walid Saffour, UK ambassador of the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, during a visit to Dublin on Wednesday.

Britain and France are in favour of giving military assistance to the opposition, but other member states are against contributing to the further militarisation of the conflict.

“Vast tracts of land in Europe are being ‘grabbed’ by large companies, speculators, wealthy foreign buyers and pension funds in a similar way to in developing countries,” begins The Guardian outlining the results of a new report into farmland ownership.

Research by several organisations, including the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Via Campesina, suggests that local farmers are being pushed out of the trade in land because of an increase during the last 10 years in acquisitions by “Chinese corporations, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth and hedge funds, as well as Russian oligarchs and giant agribusiness” who are attracted by the large subsidies offered to landowners via the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. The daily continues –

Half of all farmland in the EU is now concentrated in the 3 per cent of large farms that are more than 100 hectares (247 acres) in size. In some EU countries, land ownership is as unequal as it is in Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines. [...] Chinese companies have moved into Bulgaria on a large scale and Middle Eastern companies are now major producers in Romania. […] The concentration of land ownership is speeding up. In Germany, 1.2m land holdings in 1966-67 shrank to just 299,100 farms by 2010. […] In Andalusia, Spain, the number of farms has dropped by more than two-thirds to under 1m in 2007. In 2010, 2 per cent of landowners owned half of the land.

The Guardian says that the report suggests that —

as in many developing countries, there is strong opposition to land ‘grabbing’ in Europe. There have been reports of communities occupying land. In Andalusia, landless farmers are occupying land collectively and cultivating it. In Vienna, young people are squatting on fertile urban land.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair in Hanover on April 7.

“The greetings were a little rigid,” notes the newspaper, which found that in spite of their smiles and the announcement of reinforced bilateral economic relations, the two leaders appeared tense at the ceremony.

Russia’s recent decision to tighten regulations on foreign NGO’s and recent police visits to the Moscow offices of several German NGOs, including Transparency International and the Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert thinktanks, are responsible for the strained atmosphere.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte will “be in a quandary” when he meets the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Amsterdam today, observes the daily.

“They will first shake hands, after which Rutte will say in a friendly way that Russia and the Netherlands earn billions of euros thanks to each other, and that this is needed during these times of crisis. Then the conversation will get more complicated,” writes the newspaper.

In Rutte’s “breast pocket” is a to-do list of issues that Members of Parliament and human right organisations have demanded he raise with the president. They want him talk about gay rights in Russia, the human rights situation and the position of NGOs. “When will Rutte take out his list?” wonders De Volkskrant.

Four years after the Twitter Revolution, which marked the end of communist government in Moldova and ushered the Alliance for European Integration into power, the daily points out that there has been no inquiry into atrocities that occurred during the unrest.

Officially, three people were killed and more than 400 were tortured, but the identities of those to blame, “faces hidden from the eyes of the Moldovan public”, have never been established.

The country’s prosecutors and part of its press argue that the true victims were police officers. “Who would be angry if the truth was known?” wonders Timpul. The pro-European government, which was democratically elected in the aftermath of the vote, was forced out of office on March 5, and the country is currently ruled by an interim government.

On March 27, Pristina adopted an eight-point plan, proposed by European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, which is designed to regulate collaboration with Serbian-run local governments in Northern Kosovo.

First proposed on March 21, the Ashton plan defines the terms and conditions under which the local governments can take charge of specific duties, and rules for cooperation between them.

Serbian Vice-Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, who has called the plan "unacceptable", has been invited, along with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacić, to join the final cycle of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, scheduled for April 2, in Brussels.

Foreign minister Giulio Terzi resigned unexpectedly on March 26 following a diplomatic row with India over the extradition of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen who they mistook for pirates attacking a ship they were escorting in the Indian ocean.

Terzi said he did not agree with the move to send back the men, which reversed an earlier decision by the Italian government. This refusal had sparked an angry response from New Dehli.

Premier Mario Monti and President Giorgio Napolitano expressed frustration at his resignation, which comes amid the ongoing political uncertainty following the recent indecisive election result, and suspicion that Terzi is aiming to exploit popular anger at the extradition to further his political career.

When armed rebellion began in Syria two years ago, there were fears that European Muslims interested in jihad would go there to train to fight a holy war. If the headline in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, "Youthful gang members are going to war in the name of Islam," is to be believed, that time has come.

According to the Danish Secret Services —

… several members of the most violent gangs of immigrants in Copenhagen are currently in Syria where they have gone in order to participate in jihad. This may turn hardened criminals into hardline fundamentalists. "This is a new trend. These people are already potentially dangerous and when they return home, they have access to arms and explosives. It is very worrisome to see these types of ties forming between Islam and criminals," says the head of the Danish Secret Services.

If the Danes are concerned, the Belgians also have their share of woes. In Europe, Belgium has become the "primary supplier" of youth going to Syria for the jihad, reports Belgian daily De Morgen. The paper cites a terrorism expert who says that "in Belgium, there is still a great potential for finding combatants" but "most will return disillusioned" —

… they have heroic visions in their heads and expect to become warriors but most of them will not even have weapons. They will be deployed either to build barricades or to man an observation post or as cannon fodder.

According to another Belgian daily De Standaard, the Sharia4Belgium group, which was officially disbanded at the end of 2012, plays an important role in the recruitment of young jihadists in Belgium for the Syrian rebellion.

On March 21, Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), called on on his followers to give up their armed campaign, begun in 1984, and to continue the struggle for an autonomous Kurdish state through conventional peaceful politics.

Öcalan has been held on the island of Imrali since his arrest in 1999, and his call was read out by a Kurdish MP in Diyarbakir, the main Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey, during “Nowruz”, the celebration of the Kurdish New Year.

The European Union, which “offers its full support and financial assistance to the [Turkish] pre-accession process” has “warmly welcomed” the move, which it describes as “an important step forward.”

The enthusiasm that greeted the announcement that the United States would begin negotiations with the EU to create a free-trade zone, has now "dropped off", writes Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, a US investment management firm, in an opinion piece published in French financial daily Les Echos.

Five weeks after it was first proposed by US President Barak Obama during his State of the Union speech, there are three main obstacles to the project, he says. The first is due to the modest economic potential of the proposal –

Free-trade agreements that promise the greatest benefits are those that link economies characterised by high tariffs, low levels of trade, and little overlap in consumption and production patterns. This is not the case for the EU and the US.

The second reason for a probable failure is due to conditions on the ground both in the EU and in the US.

A seemingly endless stream of short-term political dramas has made it extremely difficult for both Europe and the US to focus for long on any secular and structural initiative. In Europe, broad-based discussion was undermined by the outcome of the Italian election, [...] In the US, the disruption took the form of yet another fiscal mini-drama.

The third obstacle is due to –

the poor state of global policy dialogue, notwithstanding all the happy talk about global challenges and shared responsibilities. Last month’s G-20 meeting ended up as yet another expensive summit lacking sufficient content and follow through. Rather than catalysing constructive policy coordination, it has inadvertently encouraged complacency.

The government has refused to grant asylum to local interpreters working for the Swedish army in Afghanistan, arguing that all asylum seekers should receive equal treatment.

When Swedish forces commence their withdrawal from the country in June, the lives of some 30 interpreters, accused by the Taliban of collaborating with the enemy, will be in danger.

The armed forces’ commander in chief clearly expressed his support for a plan to grant asylum to the interpreters, to show that Sweden is a humane country.

French President François Hollande and UK Prime Minister David Cameron called on European Union leaders to support them in lifting the European arms embargo to Syria.

At an EU summit in Brussels, Hollande said France could no longer allow people to be “massacred by a regime which has shown it doesn’t want a political discussion.”

He said London and Paris were agreed that the embargo should be ended, however the idea is likely to run into opposition from Germany, notes the daily.

In Belgrade, 20,000 people turned out to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Zoran Đinđić, the pro-western prime minister (2001-2003) who was assassinated by a sniper on March 12, 2003.

The newspaper notes that only the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign and domestic trade and telecommunications, the Social Democrat Rasim Ljajić, was present at the march, which was organised by the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party, of which Đinđić was a member.

A referendum on the status of the Falklands Islands (Las Malvinas in Spanish) carried out among the South Atlantic archipelago’s 2,900 inhabitants found 99.8 per cent support for remaining a UK overseas territory, rather than becoming part of Argentina.

The ownership of the tiny islands, located around 310 miles off the south-east coast of Argentina, has long been disputed by the two nations and triggered the Falklands War between Britain and the South American country in 1982.

Recently, Argentina has become increasingly vocal in its calls for Britain to abandon its rights to the area, which it has controlled for more than 150 years. For The Daily Telegraph’s feature writer Neil Tweedie, –

The result was a vindication for [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron, who backed the referendum as a tangible expression of the islanders’ right to self-determination, and a snub to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina, who had called it irrelevant and the product of an ‘implanted population’. [...] She has used the issue to distract her countrymen from economic woes that include one of the world’s highest rates of inflation, but the policy appears to have backfired.

However, for The Guardian’s media columnist, Roy Greenslade,, writing ahead of the result, “the referendum still amounts to a rigged ballot.”

Argentina's response, that the referendum is a meaningless publicity stunt, is surely correct (even if one disagrees with the territorial claim by Buenos Aires). And it will be seen that way across the world, including the United States. [...] Perhaps Argentina's best hope lies in persuading 1,700 of its people to emigrate to the islands in the hope of Britain holding another ballot in seven years' time.

On the Argentinian side, the Buenos Aires’ daily Clarín notes that, “30 years after the war,” the international context has changed –

The conflict is no longer bilateral. It is now regional. [...] A third agent has emerged, and the dispute is no longer limited to London and Buenos Aires. This third agent is the population on the islands, who are acting autonomously from the British government, expressed through its political authority.

On a similar theme, La Nación considers that with this referendum

almost 60 per cent of the voters have defined an identity: islanders from the Falklands [...] Whether they are mistaken or not, islanders believe they rule themselves in all essential matters and that they are, closely linked to community life. And they think that it is better to delegate external relations and defence. They prefer to err that way, and to live that way.

The Alliance for European Integration, the ruling coalition led by Vlad Filat, was voted out of office on March 5 by communist, democrat and independent MPs, who backed a motion of no confidence.

For the daily, the motion, which secured the support of 54 of the 101 members of Moldova’s parliament, ”will only serve the interests of Moscow,” which is seeking to distance the country from the EU.

Timpul also wonders if Filat is not about “to face the same fate as Ukrainian former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko,” who has been imprisoned by the current government in Kiev on charges of corruption.

"Croatia is breaking the arms embargo against Syria," reports Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, following up on revelations made by American blogger Eliot Higgins and an investigation by the New York Times. According to the news reports, a stock of Croatian weapons, dating from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, was sold to Saudi Arabia before ending up being delivered to rebels close to the Free Syrian Army in December.

The revelations are embarrassing for Croatia, which is scheduled to join the European Union on July 1. La Libre Belgique explains that –

Croatia approved the European arms embargo and cannot, in theory, supply weapons to the forces fighting in Syria.

Europeans renewed the arms embargo on Syria for three months on February 18, the paper notes, but adds that "non-lethal material" can now be supplied to the Syrian rebels.

The Croatian Foreign Affairs Ministry, "has remained silent after denying to the American journalists that the weapons sales had taken place," the paper reports.

The European Union has pledged €610m in financial support to Ukraine while European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has said Kiev must demonstrate “determined action” on a host of areas, including judicial reform, before May, if there is to be a trade deal between the two sides before the end of the year. In order to qualify for the financial aid, the Ukraine must also secure the support of the International Monetary Fund.

For the European Voice, the move will put Ukraine under “intense pressure to accelerate reforms,” adding that Kiev must address the issue of “selective justice”, such as the jail terms handed down to four politicians, including former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

An editorial written in European Voice ahead of the EU announcement urged Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, to “show the EU [the country] is serious about reform,” adding –

Yanukovych's only viable option is to reform aggressively at home along the lines demanded by the Commission, reinforcing this by showing what Ukraine is capable of internationally [...] Yanukovych cannot expect the EU's member states to take gambles on Ukraine, if he himself is not prepared to take gambles on reform that he says are in Ukraine's own interests.

Meanwhile, Gazeta Wyborcza insists,

“It is high time Kiev made a historic choice between turning East, where Vladimir Putin is trying to lure it with cheap gas, or […] signing an association agreement with the EU”. According to the Warsaw daily –

Kiev has a tough choice ahead of it. [...] It would be best to take advantage of the cheap gas and open the rich Russian market but at the same time have Western loans and technologies. And no-visa travel to Europe would be yet another bonus, if granted. A very pragmatic attitude indeed.

European foreign ministers have approved plans to dispatch a force of 500 troops with a view to training Malian soldiers for a period of 15 months.

The Commission has announced the organisation of a donors' conference to be held in mid-May in Brussels.

Europe’s 27 member states have also decided to extend sanctions against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria for an additional three months and to provide the country’s opposition with greater support to help it protect civilians.

On February 14, Moldova’s Liberal-Democratic Prime Minister, Vlad Filat, announced that he would quit the Alliance for European Integration (the coalition in power since 2009), deploring prevailing corruption and the politisation of high-profile state jobs.

However, according to the press, the real catalyst for the crisis was the fatal accident in the course of a hunting trip attended by several high ranking officials, which took place in December 2012, and particularly the role of the former attorney general, who is member of one of the parties in the ruling coalition.

Diplomats in Romania failed to anticipate the crisis in the country's eastern neighbour. Swedish, Polish and British foreign ministers are expected to arrive in Chișinău next week.

Faced with growing competition from China and India, the EU and the US want to sign an agreement to create the world’s biggest global free trade and investment zone. "A future deal between the world's two most important economic powers will be a game-changer, giving a strong boost to our economies on both sides of the Atlantic," said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Wednesday.

The negotiations are expected to begin in the first half of this year and – according to European trade commissioner Karel De Gucht – may conclude within the next two years.

A total of 54 countries took part in secret CIA detention and extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects after the September 11 attacks, according to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI).

Some countries are said to have let CIA planes use their airspace or refuel, others, including Poland and Lithuania, hosted so called “black sites” where terrorist suspects were transported, interrogated and tortured.

The creation of a transatlantic free trade zone would result in considerable benefits for the United States and Europe, argues the editor in chief of the business daily, Gabor Steingart.

An association of states based on shared ideas and interests, which is sustained by free trade, would amount to a continuation, rather than a break, with the development of both continents. “Moreover, it would send a message of freedom to countries, like China, where state capitalism has been established.“

On January 30, as Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made his first visit to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the new leader to engage in a dialogue with all the political forces in his country and to ensure respect for freedom of religion and human rights.

Morsi declared that "Egypt will be governed by a rule of law which is neither military nor theocratic." He had to cancel the French stop on his European trip in order to return to Egypt to help resolve several days of violent street protest.

The Milan stock exchange lost 1.34 per cent after gas extraction company Saipem, which is controlled by Italian energy giant ENI, fell 34 per cent following a profit warning on its forecast business. Last December, Saipem was hit by a corruption scandal in Algeria, one of its main operation countries, which prompted the resignation of its CEO.

According to Linkiesta. it the whole affair is the consequence of a power struggle between the Algerian government, which controls the national gas company Sonatrach, and the powerful military secret services. It believes the hostage crisis at the In Amenas gas field may also be linked to this ongoing struggle for power.

Britain may send hundreds of troops to Mali and neighbouring West African countries, as part of efforts to support France in its operation to drive Islamist militants from its former colony.

Downing Street said Britain is "keen" to provide further military assistance to France, but said forces will not engage in combat. UK military forces could be dispatched to Nigeria and Senegal to train local troops or boost surveillance operations.

“What can you give Europe, Mr Obama?” asks Rzeczpospolita the day after the US president’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington. The daily hastens to answer: not much.

For the American leader, Europe has been “less and less important”, Rzeczpospolita points out. The president has already announced a “pivot” towards Asia and the Pacific region and “there are no reasons for him to suddenly become interested in the Old Continent”. The United States is becoming a “superpower on a budget”, prone to influencing global affairs “from the back seat”, as was recently demonstrated in Libya. By not intervening directly, the US was able to avoid large military spending. “In this situation,” adds Rzeczpospolita –

It is really hard to say what Europe can expect from Mr Obama in his second term. It should be suggested to him that Europe is no less important than Asia. That he should draw conclusions from the failure of the “reset” with Russia and to finally understand the security needs of Central Europe and Poland. But will he ever do that? Will European leaders manage to send such a message? This, unfortunately, is rather unlikely.

Initial criticism of the Algerian army’s intervention to put an end to the hostage crisis In Amenas “appears to have died down because no country is ready to compromise relations with Algiers for a handful of hostages,” remarks the daily. Only Japan has been openly critical. However, as Trouw points out, France is using Algerian airspace to conduct its war in Mali, Obama needs Algiers for the fight against terrorism, and more generally, most of the countries who had citizens taken hostage have important oil and gas interests in Algeria.

On Thursday, European foreign ministers decided to send 250 military instructors to Mali, where they will provide training for African forces fighting Islamist groups. European states also want to provide logistical and financial support for 3,500 African troops deployed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose date of arrival in Mali has yet to be determined.

Several people — French authorities have yet to announce an official figure — were killed on Thursday, when Algerian special forces attacked the jihadis who had taken hostage dozens of employees at the In Amenas gas plant. Fighting at the site continued through Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Up to 34 people — including several Britons — are reported dead in the assault launched by the Algerian army against Al Qaeda kidnappers who took scores of engineers hostage at a gas compound in In Amenas. As a consequence, UK Prime Minister David Cameron postponed his long-awaited Friday speech on Britain’s future in Europe, to deal with the Algerian crisis.

Under the mandate of the UN, the French forces are acting with the logistical support of the British to support Malian troops against the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, fighting for independence for the provinces of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, and against the Salafists under Ansar Dine, who are fighting to establish an Islamic regime in this part of Mali.

“François Hollande can be happy to have stopped the Taliban of the sands,” writes Libération, which nevertheless wonders where Operation Serval is headed –

Faced with the rise of the Islamists, French President François Hollande has “chosen the lesser evil,” writes Le Monde.

By intervening in Mali, “François Hollande has taken a risk,” writes Süddeutsche Zeitung, adding it's a risk he must not be left to take alone.

“The problem with the French intervention is that it is French,” says Tageszeitung. The alternative daily from Berlin deplores a “colonialism of the left” and notes that –

Furthermore, warns The Independent, intervening in Mali may “fuel radical Islamists' narrative of yet another... assault on Islam.” For columnist Owen Jones –

In Bucarest, Adevărul is worried about “the major consequences for a vast swathe of Africa” of Operation Serval, and about “the security of the EU and its citizens, inside or outside the community space.” Despite this, the paper notes, “the intervention was necessary due to the unprecedented increase in the number of Islamic cells [...] both north and south of the Sahara.” It adds, however –

“The question now is whether and how the EU will mobilise,” adds European Voice. The Brussels-based weekly inquires about the state of European defence and asks

“Europeans have something to cheer at last,” writes columnist Philip Stephens in the Financial Times. US President Barack Obama’s nominations of pro-EU politicians John Kerry to the State department and Chuck Hagel to the Department of Defense offers an opportunity for Europe to reconnect with its key trading partner. The “White House wants to revive the long-stalled goal of a transatlantic free-trade area”, writes Stephens, but Washington is troubled by the UK’s anti-European stance. –

The US thinks Cameron is barmy to be talking about a referendum that could detach Britain from Europe. One certain consequence of Brexit would be a weakening of Britain’s voice in Washington. Mr Cameron has now been put on notice that outside the EU, Britain would be on its own.

The newspaper adds that through joint EU-US diplomatic pressure on Iran, both sides could further strengthen their ties, and “break free of the suffocating introversion of the euro crisis”. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, –

Refurbishing the alliance will come with a price tag – but then so does everything worthwhile. Europeans cannot expect to be taken seriously if they ratchet down further their feeble defence budgets.