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Local politicians in the town of Traiskirchen near Vienna are complaining of a flood of asylum seekers since the opening up of borders under the EU's Schengen agreement. Traiskirchen is home to Austria's largest refugee centre and local officials say the number of people accommodated there has more than doubled since border controls with Austria's eastern neighbours were dropped on December 21st. The interior ministry says the situation is being exaggerated and claims most of those coming into Austria will be sent back to the country where they

On average, Poles spends three and a half hours daily in front of the television. Nearly half of that time is devoted to watching TV series or soap operas. This is according to a recent survey by Poland's leading polling center. Anna Piwowarska of Polish Radio's External Service investigates the Polish people's love for television sagas.

Slovenia is taking on a bit of delicate diplomacy just days after taking over the European Union Presidency. The Croatian navy intercepted an Italian fishing boat in a controversial protection zone in its territorial waters last week. The EU says this could harm Croatia's chance of EU membership. This is just one of a number of thorny issues for Slovenia which sees the presidency as a matter of national pride.

Last June, a group of artists called Ztohoven hijacked a Czech Television programme to broadcast images of a nuclear bomb going off on a peaceful Czech hillside. The mock explosion may have been and gone in a flash, but the fallout has far from disappeared. Last month, Ztohoven won an award from the Czech National Gallery for the work. On Wednesday, State Attorney Dušan Ondráček said that he had brought charges against the group.

Each day Slovakia's best known caricaturist, Shooty, (Martin Sutovec) puts his pencil to work with sharp criticism of Slovak politics and society. Reactions to his caricatures on the former Pope John Paul II or other religious topics were very strong in Slovakia and led to heated debate. Though Shooty does not like to talk to the media, Ela Nahalkova managed to get wome words with the young artist.

In this week's Insight Central Europe: Slovenia takes on the EU Presidency - but is it a poisoned chalice? And we review 2007 in Central Europe with some of our features and special reports including - journeys into some of the lesser known regions of Slovakia and Slovenia. We'll find out why Poles are waltzing into dance classes and hear how Hungarians feel about open borders. You can hear all of these stories and more in this Insight Central Europe or visit our web site www.incentraleurope.com

There's probably no better way to see a country than by train, preferably a really slow one, giving you lots of time to take in the countryside, meeting interesting people along the way. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron took that to the extreme earlier this year when he set out for a 19-day slow train odyssey across the Czech Republic, accompanied by friend and former Radio Prague colleague Nick Carey. They set foot in more than 80 towns and villages, crossed the border into Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria, and trundled over more than 2,000 km

In predominantly Catholic Poland, concerts of Christmas carols are held in churches and concert halls across the country at this time of year. In quite a few Polish homes, too, people sing carols together during the Christmas season. Carols occupy such a prominent place in the Polish musical tradition, they are the subject of study by musicologists. Professor Adrian Thomas of Cardiff University in the UK, who's written several books on Polish music, has given a series of lectures on Polish music in London. One of them was devoted to Polish Christmas

In a region once riddled with borders of barbed wire and gun emplacements - Friday's historic enlargement of the EU's border free zone - known as Schengen - has particular resonance. The Visegrad four of Hungary, Poland the Czech Republic and Slovakia, along with Slovenia, were among the nine newer EU member states celebrating their new ease of travel. It was also a time to reflect on the unhappy events these borders had witnessed in the past.

Slovenia is to take over the rotating Presidency of the EU on the first of January. The EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, was in Slovenia last week for talks on the major security issues to be faced in the next six months - including the sensitive question of Kosovo's independence.