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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, founded 55 years ago, is the largest regional security organization in the world with 55 participating States. It is active in early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. The organization played an important role in soothing tensions during the period of the Cold War. The security situation in Europe and worldwide still needs continual vigilance. Slovenia is aware of this fact and will pursue this knowledge to the best of her ability when

For the 14th consecutive year Warsaw is the venue for the Mozart Festival. The event is the brainchild of Stefan Sutkowski, the artistic director of the Warsaw Chamber Opera who many years ago conceived the idea of producing ALL of Mozart's opera. Gradually the central idea of the project emerged - that of blending the sound of the music with stage action in an interior, modeled on the old theatres of Vienna and Prague for which these operas were originally written.

In Slovenia, the political scene has had to overcome several hurdles as a result of last month's elections to the European parliament. As in many other European countries, voters in Slovenia gave strong support to opposition parties. Now, only three months ahead of the Slovenian parliamentary elections, it is more than obvious that the actions and debates of political parties are still motivated by the spirit of the pre-election period.

The Hungarian Railway History Park - the first interactive railway park in Europe - exhibits more than 100 railway vehicles on about 70 thousand square metres, at a former shunting yard in Budapest. The yard was opened in 1913, and was the biggest of its kind at the time. Today's park was opened in July 2000, but renovation has been going on ever since. The Hungarian State Railways has established a Nostalgia Company that has now begun to operates the park.

Growing criticism from Britain, including such celebrities as the author of the popular Harry Potter children's books JK Rowling has resulted in much discussion on psychiatric care in the Czech Republic, especially on the use of so-called caged and netted beds - beds surrounded by iron bars or nets used to control aggressive or confused patients.

Before Slovakia's accession to the European Union many worried that the cheap and skilled labour force will be the first item to emigrate to the EU. Well, surprise, surprise, the mundane subject of butter has proved to be the front runner.

The Slovenian city of Maribor is currently hosting the annual "Lent" music festival. With around half a million visitors expected, it's one of the biggest festivals of its kind in Europe. Radio Slovenia International's Ksenija Samardzija - Matul reports.

European Union leaders will decide in December whether to begin accession talks with Turkey. Officially the EU has told Turkey it can join, but without setting a date for the process to begin. In the meantime, some European governments, France and Austria among them, have begun expressing about whether Turkey should become a member.

Poland's agriculture may be giving the European Union a headache, what with hundreds of thousands of small, uneconomical farms, but there's also an upside to this traditional farming. Poland is an ideal breeding ground for storks. In fact, a quarter of the world's stork population nests in Poland. July is the month where Europeans count their storks, this great operation includes almost all European states with special emphasis laid on Poland which for years has boasted the largest colonies of those red legged frog eaters.

Slovakia has approximately 5 million inhabitants. There are another 2 million 000 Slovaks living outside the country. Many feared that this number would even increase after May 1st, when the country entered the EU and labour markets of some of the member countries opened themselves to the newcomers.