The paper clip, 25 November

Le Soir reports that a new government will take office today in Belgium. Yves Leterme, a former prime minister and currently minister for foreign affairs, will be appointed as the country's new premier. Herman Van Rompuy, the current prime minister, will present his resignation to the king at 10.30. Van Rompuy is resigning his post to become president of the European Council, a post created by the Lisbon treaty. Steven Vanackere will replace Leterme as minister for foreign affairs. Both Leterme and Vanackere are members of the Flemish Christian Democrat party (CD&V). Jean-Luc Dehaene, another former prime minister, will lead work on institutional reform.

“Can Leterme do better?”, La Libre Belgique asks in reference to the politician's previous stint as prime minister. Leterme was prime minister between March and December 2008, a period during which he tried and failed to broker a deal on constitutional reform and resigned twice. His second resignation was prompted by allegations that his government had infringed the constitution by pressuring the judiciary to approve the sale of Fortis bank. Leterme was subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Le Monde also recaps Leterme's previous difficulties, including that he was unable to form a government for 223 days after winning Belgium's general election in June 2007.

José Manuel Barroso now has a full complement of nominees from which to form his second European Commission, a fact noted widely in the European press. The Financial Times focuses on Barroso's vow not to let lobbying affect how he allocates portfolios. Slovakia's Pravda headlines the increase in the number of women in the Commission, from eight to nine, or one-third of the college of commissioners.

Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza focuses on the European Parliament and a declaration by the European People's Party that it will reject nominees linked with “undemocratic governments and political movements”. That could, for example, spell problems for Štefan Füle, the Czech nominee, who was a member of the Communist Party. It entitles the article “Lustration in Brussels?”.

Poland's Rzeczpospolita writes that members of the European Parliament are increasingly unwilling to risk irritating Belarus's President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. It points, by way of one example, as the Parliament's decision not to accommodate a request by the Belarusian opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich on the situation in Belarus. Gazeta Wyborcza carries a small report that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will visit Belarus and meet Lukashenka on 30 November.

Romania's Social Democratic (PSD) and Liberal National (PNL) parties have agreed to vote for the Social Democrat Mircea Geoana in the second round of presidential elections in Romania, Ziarul Financiar reports.  They have also decided to appoint Klaus Johannis, the leader of the German National Front Party as an interim prime minister, if Geoana wins the second round. The two parties are hoping to attract the votes lost by the leader of the PNL, Crin Antonescu, in the first round of elections and use them against Traian Basescu in the second round, on 6 December.

The UK's defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, has blamed the US for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph reports. He blamed US President Barack Obama for delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban. As Gazeta Wyborcza and other papers note, Obama is set to announce the despatch of an additional 35,000 troops to Afghanistan.

A leading human rights organisation has said there is clear evidence of the UK government's involvement in the torture of its own citizens, the Guardian reports. Human Rights Watch condemned Britain's role in the torture of terror suspects in Pakistan as “cruel, counter-productive and in clear breach of international law”.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo has failed, according to experts. A report says the mission has not delivered a knockout blow to Rwandan rebels, while local insurgents have seized new territory. The Irish Times has the story.

Guido Westerwelle, Germany's new foreign minister, is on a visit to Austria today, Die Presse writes. He will meet not only President Heinz Fischer and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, but also the current and the future heads of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei and Yukiya Amano. The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna.

The IAEA will review the draft of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Iran tomorrow, Die Presse writes. The draft resolution will ask Iran to reveal details about a second uranium enrichment plant whose existence was disclosed only recently. For the first time, China and Russia also back tougher sanctions on Iran should the regime not comply.

Sme notes that the European Court for Human Rights has ordered Slovakia must compensate eight Roma women sterilised without their consent. In the Czech Republic, Michal Kocáb, the minister for human rights, has said that the apology that the Czech government made on Monday to Roma women sterilised without their permission is a first step and that financial compensation will follow. Lidové noviny has a report.

Le Figaro has an interview with Dominique Strauss-Khan, the head of the International Monetary Fund, in which he says he expects unemployment in the US and Europe to peak in summer 2010.

Trade union leaders in Ireland have acknowledged that temporary measures to reduce public-sector earnings next year are necessary if across-the-board pay cuts are to be avoided, the Irish Times reports. Yesterday, 250,000 public-sector workers took part in a national strike.

The Irish Independent says victims of recent flooding in Ireland will face a means test to see if they qualify for aid. The Irish government has set aside €10 million for people whose damaged homes and possessions are not covered by insurance.

Global warming is progressing faster than previously predicted, according to a new report, Die Presse writes. Greenland's ice-cap has been melting faster and global sea levels rising higher that previously thought. The report comes two weeks before world leaders are to meet in Copenhagen to discuss how to curb climate change.

Le Monde reports that French medical authorities will today launch a vaccination programme in schools against swine flu. Parents will be allowed to decide whether or not they want their children to be vaccinated.