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May is the month of love in Slovakia. On the first of the month beautiful birch trees decorated with colourful ribbons appear in front of houses in villages all over the country. These trees are called Máje. Young men would put the trees outside the house of their intended. The decorated birch tree was a definite marriage proposal not usually refused given the fact that the whole village could see the tree. And in the villages of Slovakia, if the tree did not do the trick then a love potion just might. In this merry month of May Anca Dragu went

A million migrants from Central and Eastern Europe arrived in Britain after European Union enlargement in 2004. They were doctors and dentists, plumbers and painters, waiters and willing field workers. They filled a gap in the British labour market and they helped enrich their own economies by sending money back home. This wave of workers was not predicted, in fact Britain expected only 30 thousand migrants. As we now know the real number was much higher but a new report suggests the immigration tide is turning. The British based Institute for

And our next story is no joke. It's about the Polish sense of humour. Has anyone even heard of a Polish sense of humour? Do you know any Polish jokes? How about this: a Russian, a German and a Pole meet on the twentieth floor of a high-rise building and decide to have a competition… You'll have to keep listening.

Rusyns, also reffered to as Ruthenians, Carpatho-Rusyns, or Rusnaks, are a modern Slavic ethnic group speaking the Rusyn language and descended from the minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt a Ukrainian national identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The ethnic identity of Rusyns is highly controversial. Some researchers claim that they are distinct from Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, while others considers Rusyns to be a subgroup of the Ukrainian nation. Nowadays they live spread over six countries including Poland

Sixteen years have passed since around thirty thousand people living in Slovenia lost all their residency rights. They became known as the erased. These were people who vanished from the lists simply because they failed to register as Slovenia made the transition from Yugoslav Republic to independent state. At least seven people are reported to have committed suicide, while thousands lost their jobs. Many have since regained their residency rights but, as Ivana Pristavec reports, others remain outcasts.

Thousands of Vietnamese, repressed in their home country, often try their luck abroad. For those who settle in Poland it can be a tough transition. They have to work hard simply to survive, and to grasp a difficult language. Estimates vary but most say around forty to fifty thousand Vietnamese currently live in Poland, many of them illegally, and many of them with children. So what is their life like and how do Poles feel about the Vietnames in their midst?

Central Europe's chaotic history, with empires falling and borders going up and coming down has left many minorities stranded - living in the place where their people have lived for centuries - but in a different state. This is the case for most minorities in Hungary - but not for the Armenians of Hungary. They're an exception to the rule. They're Hungary's smallest minority and as Sandor Laczko reports - they're clinging to their ancient culture.

Roma or Romany people form one of the largest minorities in the Czech Republic. Ethnic Czechs and Roma live side-by-side in many Czech towns and villages. But the two groups are not always comfortable bedfellows. Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Czech Roma have been making the most of their increased mobility and moving out. And as Rosie Johnston from Radio Prague reports, many are not returning home from their travels.

There were clashes over abortion in the European parliament this week. The source of the conflict was a report calling for abortion to be decriminalised in all of Europe. A majority of Parliamentarians supported the recommendation - which is not binding - but others, from countries such as Italy and Poland where abotition is restricted, argued that freedom of choice should not prevail over the rights of the unborn. The debate in the parliament in Strasbourg coincides with another in the Czech Republic and a court ruling on abortion earlier this

Police in the Czech region of North Bohemia have detained a man on suspicion of desecrating the graves of hundreds of Holocaust victims at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp of Terezín last week. The man is accused of stealing over 300 bronze name plaques from the graves. If found guilty he could face up to eight years in prison. Radio Prague's Ruth Frankova reports on why this is a particularly sensitive crime.