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The Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski travelled to the United States this week, not only to bask in the glory of being America's closest European ally, but also to stir up some trouble. Poland says Washington should reward Warsaw for its all-out support in Iraq - but points out it has so far gained few benefits. Its biggest complaint is about controls and visa regulations for Poles are trying to enter the US. Poland says these should be scrapped.

A dispute over an anti-discrimination law - or rather the lack of one - is keeping politicians busy in Slovakia. European Parliament officials have warned Slovakia and other states who are about to become members that if they do not approve anti-discrimination legislation by the end of the year, they may face sanctions from the Brussels.

As Austria looks back on forty years of labour migration some of its neighbours, the EU candidate countries are beginning to see increased labour migration. The Czech Republic, for example, is actively trying to attract more qualified foreign workers - to counteract the problems of an aging population and a declining birth rate. Is central Europe going to see a new wave of labour migration after May? Dr Herbert Brücker, is a researcher at the German Institute of Economic Research

The Slovenian parliament ratified the European Union accession treaty this week - making it possible for the former Yugoslav republic to join the EU family. This was the last formal step before membership in May.

A report in a Czech newspaper detailing plans to modernise the 1000-year-old Prague Castle complex caused a minor stir this week. The paper claimed the plans included everything from new shops and restaurants to a hairdressers and even a branch of McDonald's! The article hasn't gone down well with the President's Office, which accuses the newspaper of blowing things out of proportion.

Forty years ago a building boom in Austria created a demand for workers that could not be met locally. So in 1964 Vienna signed a labour agreement with Turkey and two years later with Yugoslavia. It was the beginning of what is now known as the gastarbeiter - the guest worker. The story of those workers and their children is now being explored in a series of exhibitions in Vienna.

The world-renowned photographer Inge Morath was born in Graz - the capital of the Austrian province of Styria. She died at the end of January 2002, but before then journeyed through the borderland between southern Styria and Slovenia searching for clues to her family's origins. Her mother was born in an area that today lies in Slovenia. Out of Inge Morath's last journeys came an exhibition called "Border.Areas" Karen Engel when to the first showing of the exhibition and filed this report...

Poland is facing problems in creating a modern knowledge based economy. That is an economy in which wealth is created through production, distribution and use of knowledge. A preliminary report from the World Bank identifies some of the barriers and it lists - a monopoly in fixed-line telephones, loose ties between universities and firms, and flaws in the educational system. Rick Woodward is one of the authors of the report. He's an economist at the Centre for Social and Economic Research in Poland

Hundreds of abattoirs in Hungary have been given until the 1st of March to improve hygiene and animal welfare standards - or close. But the Hungarian government is stepping in to bail them out, with a credit line of 100 billion forints - that's almost 400 million Euros to help Hungarian businesses, including slaughterhouses, comply with the EU's food safety standards. Tibor Szanyi is state secretary in the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. He says slaughterhouses-in need- can also get help from the EU' SAPARD program.

The European Commission head is in dispute with the Slovak government over 500 million dollars of subsidies to a U.S. Steel Corporation Plant - - it's a state aid row, which threatens to cast a shadow over the country's EU entry this May. In the EU, state aid to the steel sector is tightly controlled, and government bailouts must be linked to cuts in capacity - something it's says is NOT happening at Slovakia's Kosice plant which was bought by U.S. Steel in 2000.