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On a normal day, the big European news would be the shakeup of the cohesion funds proposed by the European Commission for EU's next budget period of 2021-2027. Regions are still divided into less-developed, transition and more-developed regions, and the allocation of funds is still mostly based on GDP per capita. However, the Commission is introducing new criteria to influence the final allocation. These include youth unemployment, education level, climate change, and the reception and integration of migrants.

The result of this reform is that, despite a 10% reduction in the overall cohesion budget, crisis-hit countries see their receipts increase: this includes Greece (+8%), Italy (+6%), Spain (+5%) and Cyprus (+2%); but also Finland (+5%) which, despite being a northern creditor country was hit by a strong recession since the crisis. Contributions to Romania (+8%) and Bulgaria (+8%) also increase. As Politico points out, the additional money for the southern countries comes with strings attached. There will be a mid-term review of the allocations, tied among other criteria to whether countries are achieving their country-specific recommendations in the European semester. The Baltic countries, whose economies are doing relatively well, lose a significant amount of funding. The Visegrad four are hit by the double whammy of both being relatively wealthier than 7 years ago, and the Commission's new criterion of reception of migrants. Except for Latvia which only loses 13%, the Baltic and Visegrad countries lose over 20% of their funding, about the same as Germany.

Fintan O’Toole compares the referendum in Ireland with the Brexit vote in the UK, and looks at the lessons that can be learned. Both referendums were on emotional subjects, but the Irish vote was not subverted. There was no lack of trying, though. The two main groups against the removal of the anti-abortion clause from the constitution hired experts from Cambridge Analytica and used social media apps like the ones used in the Brexit and Trump campaigns. Voters were subjected to the same polarising tactics, with fake facts, contempt against experts and deliberately shocking images. Still, the final vote confirmed that Irish democracy resisted. This leads to a democracy playbook with at least four good rules.

First, trust the people. An assembly with 99 randomly chosen but demographically representative voters listened to 40 experts, affected women and 17 different lobby groups. They came out with recommendations that were much more open than expected, recommending unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks. Parliament endorsed their recommendations in full.

The second lesson is to put all cards on the table. Technically this vote was about a revocation of a clause in the constitution. But the government laid out the whole legislative proposal that would follow. This allowed its opponents to pick at it and distort it, but it also undercut paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Third, the campaign tactic was to talk to everybody and make assumptions about nobody. Yes campaigners, among them many young people, went out of their comfort zone to talk to people typically framed as conservative, and listen without prejudice. And with success. A majority of farmers and 40% of the over-65 voted for repeal.

The last lesson is about the power of personal narratives. Irish women told their own painful stories in public. Exit polls suggest that this was by far the biggest factor in determining how people voted.