ICE - special | All stories

Every year the small Slovenian town of Radovljica hosts a classical music festival that features both older and contemporary pieces. The 22nd annual Radovljica music festival recently came to a close and joining us now is the artistic producer and director, Tjasa Krajnc. Tjasa, what makes this festival so special?

Almost twelve months after Poland took charge of the eight thousand strong multinational force in south-central Iraq, a highly difficult time has come for the Polish mission. This follows the deaths of three Polish soldiers in as many days.

In many countries in central and eastern Europe, black football players frequently come in for racist abuse from the terraces. Clubs and national associations have sometimes come in for heavy fines, but the problem shows no signs of going away. The Czech government has just launched a new anti-racism campaign, part of which focuses on the issue of racism in football. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby reports.

In largely Roman Catholic Slovakia, divorce rates have doubled in the last 15 years, and the issue is currently making the headlines, with the country's socially conservative justice minister pushing to make divorce harder to obtain. But are the real causes of divorce being addressed? And how do ordinary Slovaks feel about the issue? Radio Slovakia's Anca Dragu reports.

Slovenia is one of the new EU member states where unemployment is low and few people are moving abroad. Nevertheless poverty among young people has become an issue and the number of people claiming social benefits is on the rise. In fact, since Slovenia's independence in 1991 the number of adults receiving social assistance has increased four times over. Ksenija Samaradzija Matul from Radio Slovenia International has more.

A debate over gay marriage and equal rights for same sex couples has begun in Austria. The debate was sparked by Andreas Khol, the Parliamentary President and a senior figure in the conservative People's Party. Joanna King reports.

When the European Union enlarged on May 1st most of the old member states kept restrictions on the movement of labour from the new member states. The exceptions were Britain and Ireland. One result is that since May 1st 11,000 Poles have moved to Ireland for work. Direct flights from Warsaw to Dublin now cater for the traffic. Elzbieta Krajewsa reports on the attractions of the Emerald Isle - for Poles.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary are all moving away from compulsory military service to a professional army. But NATO member Poland and neutral Austria both cling to conscription. And according to some economists, that has a negative impact on economic growth. One of those economists is Gudrun Biffl, a labour market expert at Austria's Institute for Economic Research. Kerry Skyring asked her - how does abolishing conscription help the economy?

Polish actress Alicja Borkowska has been selected from among 600 candidates to play Cleopatra in Timothy Walker's new musical. The performances will be played in London's National Theatre.

This summer, Slovenia drew closer to adopting the Euro. At midnight on June 27, Slovenia, along with Estonia and Lithuania, entered the exchange rate mechanism II, also known as the ERM II or "waiting room" for the Euro. After a two-year wait, countries in ERM II can adopt the euro - as long as nothing goes wrong in the meantime.