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Chances are you enjoyed a few glasses of wine during the winter break - but if you are a vintner in Slovakia you probably did not drink a toast to the European Commission. The EU's executive body wants to reform the wine industry and Slovak growers says that's not a cause for celebration.

The International Auschwitz Council has unanimously agreed to major renovations at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz - Birkenau in southern Poland. The site of the death camp has served as the oldest exhibition of the Holocaust. It is a living testament to the horror of the Second World War.

On New Year's Eve, Slovenia joined the eurozone - the first former communist state, and first of the new EU members, to do so.

According to a recent EU-barometer survey, support for European Union membership in Hungary has fallen by 10 percentage points - down to 39 per cent. But the picture may not be all that bleak.

Like the rest of Central Europe, we're having an unusually warm winter here in the Czech Republic. Some towns and cities have even posted record temperatures often reaching well above the ten degree Celsius mark. With snow scarce on the ground, travel agents say many Czechs who traditionally go to the mountains to ski are now buying holiday packages elsewhere. Naturally, many ski resorts are struggling to adapt to the situation. Dita Asiedu reports:

Fifteen years have passed since Slovenia achieved independence from the former Yugoslavia. In that time, Slovenia has been crafting a new identity, reforming its economy and political system and realigning its position in Europe. Since independence, the small Alpine country has joined NATO and the European Union, and next year should become the first new EU member to adopt the Euro.

This coming week will see ceremonies in Budapest and other capitals of Central Europe marking the 50th anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union. An uprising, which was quickly and brutally crushed but which was one of the defining moments of the Cold War and, of course, recent Hungarian history.

Slovakia is to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq - the 99 troops will come home in February next year. But Bratislava says it wants to keep good contacts with Baghdad and one reason is that it sells significant quantities of arms and ammunition to Iraq. As Anca Dragu reports from Bratislava, Slovakia's new government has big plans to revitalise its arms industry:

As millions of Catholics around the world commemorated the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death earlier this month, in his native Poland the atmosphere was very reminiscent of what the country witnessed a year ago, before and after the Pope's death. But is there anything beyond these manifestations of religious fervour?

The Czech Republic has become the only country in Central Europe where gays and lesbians will be allowed to enter into registered partnerships. The lower house of Parliament on Wednesday narrowly overturned an earlier veto by President Vaclav Klaus. Dita Asiedu was there: