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Leaders of eight Central and Eastern European countries met in the Bulgarian capital Sofia recently to launch an initiative called the "Decade of Roma Inclusion". Founded by Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, the initiative hopes to bring about real change for Europe's millions of Roma, who often live in appalling squalor and poverty. But can such initiatives really work?

It's taken a little time but Reality Television has reached Slovakia. In fact wherever you go on public transport, in offices and bars, everyone seems to be talking about it. We take a loser look at the television genre that's taken Slovakia by storm...

Unlike Eastern Germany and the Czech Republic, Poland has not dug deep into its files of communist-era secret police and their informers. In fact Poland's first Solidarity government had a 'no questions asked' policy - later changed to allow vetting of top public officials. But finally the cat's out of the bag. A list of former security police spies has been placed on the World Wide Web by a right-wing journalist who smuggled it out of an agency investigating communist-era crimes.

In about four weeks time Croatia should begin negotiations to join the European Union. But there are some strings attached. Zagreb has to hand over a war crimes suspect, wanted by the International tribunal in The Hague, and it has to sort out some border problems with its neighbour, Slovenia.

In Hungary, there's the grim reality of dead animals found in vehicles crossing the Hungarian border. In the most recent case officials found the frozen bodies of 125 birds in a refrigerated trailer. They were estimated to be worth up to 2 million forints - around 10,000 US dollars - on the black market. To illustrate the problem of the illegal trade in endangered species an exhibition of luxury items made from endangered animals opened at the zoo in Pecs, southern Hungary recently.

Norfolk and part of Suffolk in the UK, which have been competing for the title of "dental desert" among National Health Service patients have decided to remedy the situation by specialist imports from new EU member countries. Poland is to be the source of 200 such dental specialists in the nearest months thanks to an extra 1.8 million pound budget, spread across the U.K's Primary Care Trusts in greatest need of expanding the services to cut long waits for appointments.

The outbreak of the deadly respiratory disease known as SARS in Asia in 2003 showed how infectious diseases can spread across borders with alarming speed. In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention responds to such outbreaks but in Europe there is no continent wide response. Now, partly as a reaction to the SARS scare, the EU is setting up its Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, Sweden.

The European Commission has told Slovakia it must lower its carbon dioxide emissions by 14 percent. This is required under the Kyoto protocol. But if Slovakia complies it will anger a number of local companies. The subsidiary of the US Steel company has already filed a legal challenge with a European court.

In the Czech Republic, the Roman Catholic Church is suffering from an acute shortage of priests, as the older generation near the end of their careers and few young Czech priests are ordained. But the Church has found a solution - "importing" priests from neighbouring Poland.

Not too many countries have a national anthem, which is at once a drinking song - and a call for peace. Slovenia does. On Tuesday, Slovenia celebrates "Preseren Day" in honor of its great national poet, France Preseren.