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The Current Series
 The
Business of Drugs
The coming down of
Cold War barriers, a decade ago, provided new opportunities for travel
and trade across the Continent. But these have their seamier side as well
- not least in the money to be made satisfying the West's appetite for
illegal drugs. Jan Repa reports:
Russia
and Europe
Russia's president
elect, Vladimir Putin, has made his first visit to the West. During his
one-day visit to London the emphasis was on cooperation and building relations.
Yet those relations remain cool, in the wake of arguments over Kosovo,
NATO expansion and most recently Chechnya. Why is it that Russians and
other Europeans find it so difficult to find a common language? Malcolm
Haslett, who's just been to Russia, reports:
The
Balkans One Year After Kosovo - March
'00
A year ago NATO launched
an air campaign against Yugoslavia in a bid to force its leadership to
accept a settlement plan for Kosovo and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
After 11 weeks' bombing, NATO defeated Belgrade; and the West promised
help for the countries that had given their support during the conflict.
The BBC's South-east Europe analyst, Gabriel Partos, looks at the impact
the Kosovo crisis has had on the Balkans:
Roma
- the Outsiders of Europe - Feb '00
In
recent years, Western Europe has seen a large influx of Roma or Gypsies
claiming asylum on grounds of discrimination and persecution. In the vast
majority of cases, these claims have been rejected. So what is the real
position of Roma in Eastern and Central Europe? Here to examine the issues
is Andrea Doder:
Criminals against
Humanity- Jan '00
The former Chilean
military ruler, Augusto Pinochet, still awaits a final decision by the
British government whether to allow him home or extradite him to Spain.
Just one of a number of recent cases involving crimes against humanity,
some of them going back to World War II. What should done with people
who served dictatorial regimes? How do European societies live with the
burdens of past tyranny? Jan Repa reports.
Albania after Kosovo
- Dec '99
During the conflict
in Kosovo earlier this year nearly half a million Kosovar Albanians found
refuge in Albania, Europe's poorest country. Now, six months on, virtually
all the refugees have left. But the impact of the conflict on Albania
and on Albania's relations with its neighbours looks more enduring. The
BBC's South-east Europe analyst, Gabriel Partos, reports on Albania in
the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict.
Helsinki Summit-
Nov '99
In less than
two weeks' time, on December 10th, leaders of the European Union will
gather in the Finnish capital Helsinki for their six-monthly summit. The
summit is expected to give an unprecedented push to the Union's expansion
-- and will be watched closely in countries as far apart as Latvia and
Turkey. In The New Europe, our Brussels correspondent Oana Lungescu examines
just what is at stake in Helsinki.
Communism and religion
- Oct '99
On November 9th,
Germans commemorated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Throughout the summer and autumn of 1989, the Communist state of East
Germany had witnessed massive but peaceful public demonstrations, which
often began around prominent Protestant churches. In neighbouring Poland,
also, the majority Catholic Church played a major role in the downfall
of Communism. But today, ten years on, the churches appear divided and
confused. Jan Repa considers this ambiguous record.
What's happened to the ex-communists?-Sep
'99
Ten years ago - in
early October 1989 - the ruling Hungarian communist party broke with decades
of tradition and transformed itself into what it said was a Western-style
social democratic organisation. It was a trail-blazing move that was quickly
followed by several other of the ruling parties in central and south-eastern
Europe. Gabriel Partos reports on what's happened to the former communist
parties since then.
Sixty years ago on
Wednesday the Second World War began with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland.
Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The war was
eventually to see the death of over 50 million people, the eclipse of
European power, and the emergence of America and the Soviet Union as two
rival world superpowers. Yet today relations between the Germans and their
immediate Eastern neighbours - Poles and Czechs - appear better than they
have been for many generations - perhaps centuries. Jan Repa examines
the change and its wider implications for the future of Europe.
Nearly two months
after NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, arguments still rage
about how the media covered the conflict over Kosovo. The BBC's South-east
Europe analyst, Gabriel Partos, has been talking to journalists from the
Balkans and beyond about what can be learnt from the problems and pitfalls
of reporting what's likely to have been the last European war of the 20th
century.
Since the start of
the war in Yugoslavia concerns have been raised by various groups and
individuals on the effect of the bombing on the environment both in Yugoslavia
and its neighbouring countries. Frane Maroevic looks at the likely problems
raised by this issue
Ten years ago, the Communist regimes of
Central and Eastern Europe were collapsing. Politicians were talking hopefully
about a "common European home" and an end to artificial barriers. East-West
trade revived - some legitimate, some not. But with growing urgency,
international agencies and human rights organisations have been pressing
European governments to adopt a tougher approach to a particularly unsavoury
and lucrative form of commerce: the trafficking of East European women and
children for sex. Report by Jan Repa
According to some estimates the current crisis
in Kosovo has created around million and a half refugees and displaced persons.
The war in Bosnia has now been over for more than three years, but the vast
majority of refugees have not returned to their former homes. Frane Maroevic
examines how refugees from Bosnia are coping with the burden of exile and their
hopes for the future
NATO's air strikes
against Yugoslavia have highlighted the danger posed to regional stability
by the ethnic conflicts that have re-emerged in Europe since the collapse
of communism. Kosovo has been one of the worst - and certainly the most
persistent - of these conflicts. The BBC's South-east Europe analyst,
Gabriel Partos, reports on how Serbia's neighbours
have been struggling to cope with the new realities in Kosovo.
On March 12th, three
former Soviet satellite states - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
- join NATO. The Russians have vehemently opposed enlargement from the
start but their objections have been overruled. The new members say NATO
entry represents an acknowledgement of their place in the Western world
- the world of democracy, civic society and material prosperity. How real
are these expectations and what changes, physical and psychological, will
they need to undergo? Jan Repa investigates.
Internet in New Europe - Jan
'99
Surprisingly or not, most of the ex-communist countries are catching up
with Western Europe in the most modern method of communication - The Internet.
Frane Maroevic explains
Reporting Diversity - Dec
'98
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe
and over the past decade the media across much of central and eastern
Europe have enjoyed a new-found freedom. But the 1990s have also been
marked by a resurgence of conflicts in the region, and the media have
been blamed, at least in part, for stirring up enmity between different
national, ethnic and religious groups. Gabriel Partos now looks at the
problems of reporting minority issues and what's being done to improve
media coverage of groups and individuals who are different from the majority
communities.
Minorities - Nov '98
This month in the New Europe we are discussing one of the continent's
great unsolved problems: relations between ethnic groups. Jonathan
Stoneman chairs a discussion about efforts to protect minorities through
legislation -- is this really the best way to solve the problem of interethnic
conflict? Or is it a way of storing up trouble for the future?
Balkans - Oct '98
In this programme Firdevs Robinson from the BBC's Turkish Section asks
whether conflict in the Balkans was inevitable or weather some sources
of trouble can be removed by a simple change of attitude.
Refugees - Sep '98
In the 1990s Europe has experienced its worst refugee crisis since the
immediate aftermath of the Second World War. In the wake of the recent
elections in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Gabriel
Partos has gone there and to Croatia to look at developments during
what's been designated the Year of Return.
Coping With Disasters - Aug
'98
In this programme, Jan Repa looks at
natural disasters - how societies cope and what this tells us about the
countries concerned.
Tourism - Jul '98
Gabriel Partos takes a relaxed look
at how the countries of central and south-eastern Europe are coping with
the fresh challenges posed by the latest developments in the world of
tourism.
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