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Slovenia has come out on top in a survey that looked at economic performance in the eight East and Central European countries which joined the EU last year. The Performance Index was prepared by the World Economy Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

United Nations' World Refugee Day was marked this past week. Since 1992 Slovakia has hosted around 45,000 refugees from all around the world. As a member of the EU it's possible that the flow of refugees into and through Slovakia will increase.

After the rejection of the European Constitution there's concern that planned EU enlargement to take in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia may be delayed. The Ljubljana-based Centre for Strategic Studies recently gathered together experts to look at the risks to further enlargement along with the ongoing crisis over the constitution.

"Journeys in a New Homeland" is the title of a play written by a Cameroonian refugee, Simon Mol, and shown to Polish audiences by a team of refugee-actors seeking asylum in Poland.

Europe's leaders decided to put the ratification of the constitution on hold at their summit in Brussels - they said there should be a period of real reflection on the future of Europe. So what do people in the new member countries think of the collapse of the Constitution and the rift over how the EU is funded? Rob Cameron spoke to two students with very different views on Europe - Jakub Stedron, a pro-Constitution student and member of the Young Social Democrats, and Tomas Jirsa, an anti-Constitution student and member of the Young

A joint session of the Slovenian and Croatian governments last week in Croatia ended with the signing of several agreements. One was on avoiding double taxation - but the other dealt with the sensitive issue of their disputed border.

For more than a year now Slovak authorities have been trying to acquire some 50 hectares of land on which the Korean carmaker Hyundai/Kia will build a factory. But small landowners are unhappy with the offered price and have refused to sell. They're now threatening to take the government to the Constitutional Court.

Most of the labour markets of the old EU member states remain closed to Polish job-seekers. While Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden are the only countries where Polish citizens can find legal jobs without applying for special permits, Holland is now launching a project which could further restrict the availability of its labour market to workers from new EU members.

Hungary has taken over the presidency of the 'Visegrad Four' - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The group works on regional cooperation and has been trying to achieve a common stance on a number of issues within the European Union.

Hungary has a new president. This week, Laszlo Solyom - an opposition candidate, won the vote ahead of the Socialist party candidate Katalin Szili. Now the Socialist Party leads the governing coalition so the election of Laszlo Solyom is a bit of a blow to the government's prestige.