Insight Central Europe News
Central European countries to work together for EU funds
The four Visegrad Group countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have agreed to boost cooperation to help their farmers obtain European Union funds in the next fiscal period up to 2013. Agriculture ministers said that they were largely satisfied with the European Commission's financial proposal for agriculture, but they criticized planned reforms to the sugar market. The Polish agriculture minister said the reforms were too far-reaching.
Solidarity with Slovakia after devastating storms
Slovakia's neighbours have expressed their solidarity following devastating storms last week in the Tatra Mountains. The Hungarian Agriculture Minister Imre Nemeth promised to help with seedlings and professional advice, after the storms brought down vast areas of forest. The Czech Republic promised to send fire officers and heavy equipment.
Slovak woman freed after months-long hostage crisis
A Slovak woman has been freed after nearly six months as a hostage in Russia's North Caucasus. 28-year-old Miriam Jevikova had been working for the Prague-based Organisation for Aid for Refugees, when she was kidnapped in June. The kidnappers had demanded a one million dollar ransom. The Czech Foreign Minister, Cyril Svoboda, told reporters that the Czech, Slovak and Russian authorities had cooperated closely for her release, but nobody had paid any ransom.
Austrian asylum statistics cause controversy
Austria's Interior Ministry has published figures saying 40% of asylum seekers in Austria have faced criminal charges this year. Opposition politicians have accused the ministry of misusing statistics as part of a push for tougher asylum laws, pointing out that the figures do not refer to convictions, but to charges laid. The statistics indicate that the most common charges brought against asylum seekers are in connection with drug dealing and theft.
Pension bonuses for Czech political prisoners
Former Czech political prisoners under the communist regime are to receive pension bonuses by way of compensation, more than 15 years after the fall of the regime. The government had already approved a pension package for political prisoners between the years 1948 and 1968, but has now extended the decree to cover people persecuted in the last twenty years of communist rule. Pension levels will depend on how long people were held in prison.
TV project to rebuild trust in the former Yugoslavia
The first part of a major television project trying to rebuild bonds between one-time friends and neighbours in the former Yugoslavia has been premiered at a documentary festival in Amsterdam. In 20 episodes people separated by the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia exchange emotional video letters, seeking to renew contact and restore trust. The series will be broadcast simultaneously in all the countries that once made up Yugoslavia.
