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Across the border from Slovakia, in Hungary, the Slovak Roma problems are being closely followed. Many are asking, could similar riots happen in Hungary? Petra Hajdu of Radio Budapest spoke to Angela Kocze - head of the European Roma information office in Brussels.

Russia's Central Election Commission has allowed more than 500 foreign observers to monitor the March 14th. presidential election. Half of the monitors are from the Vienna based OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The election looks like a foregone conclusion for incumbent president Vladimir Putin. Jill Zobel spoke to Nikolai Petrov from the Carnegie Center in Moscow and to Russiaa expert Gerhard Mangott, from the Austrian institute for international relations and asked them to analyse Mr Piutin's appeal to

International media, particular the British tabloids, have been focussing on Slovakia's Roma minority following recent riots in the East of the country. Reporting has ranged from the xenophobic - raising fears that Slovak Roma would emigrate en-masse after EU enlargement - to reports focussing on the plight of the Roma and discrimination against them. Our own Martina Grenova from Radio Slovakia International has been in Eastern Slovakia with the international media.

Poland currently has some of Europe's most restrictive abortion legislation. But that may be about to change. The ruling Social Democratic Left Alliance - the SLD - is present a new bill to Parliament which they say will protect a woman's right to decide about parenthood. Agnieska Bielawska reports.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg this week raised concerns that candidate countries to the EU were not doing enough to meet EU standards and fight corruption. In its last monitoring report before May 1, when 10 countries join the EU, the assembly said there was «still a big gap in ... implementation and enforcement in important areas.» Slovenia is trying to bridge that gap. It's signed up to the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. Ksenija Samardzija Matul from Radio Slovenia International has more.

A Polish vodka maker has been putting to the test the old adage that alcohol loosens the tongue, by offering customers a free English language course with each bottle. But what was an attempt to boost vodka sales has given Polmos Zielona Gora company with a headache. The government's Agency for Solving Alcohol Problems has accused the firm, of inducing young people to drink through questionable marketing practices.

Enlargement of the European Union is now just under 2 months away. Many in 10 accession countries see their entry into the EU on 1 May as an historic opportunity, hard won after years of social and economic reforms. But Czechs are curious about how their country will fare financially in the EU. Will the Czech Republic be a net beneficiary from the Union's budget?

Since 1998, the European Commission has been running a communication offensive to tell Slovak's what to expect when they're in the EU. But now that enlargement is just around the corner, the task of telling people about the EU has been passed to a newly opened government Euro Info Center.

Unlike many countries in the European Union, Austria currently has no single, nationwide law that protects the rights of animals. At the moment it is up to each province to decide how much protection they should get. So the fact that the government is drawing up a draft for the first national animal protection law should be welcomed by animal welfare groups, right? Well - wrong. Many groups say the draft law will worsen rather than improve animal welfare in Austria.

The European Commission has proposed keeping regional subsidies for poor regions in existing member states. Their spending plans for 2007 to 2013 would see only 41 percent of EU handouts go to the new members, while the current club of 15 current countries would get a 51 percent share - despite its higher living standards. Kerry Skyring asked Heather Grabbe from the Center for European Reform - is this fair?