indexed map

(updated 20 January 2012)

   Foreign minister says refusal to sign fiscal deal will hurt Czechs
   Slovenian Parliament endorses Janez Janša for PM
   Moscow ring-road rally for fair elections
   Tallinn to sell its excess carbon quota to Japan
   Landmark ruling by Prague court on right to home birth
   EU set to broaden criteria for sanctions on Belarus officials
   Protest rally against the current Moldovan administration
   Low turnout but Croatia's EU accession supported by 66% of voters
   Moves to recognise Russian as a state language in Latvia
   Hungarian Prime Minister defends his policies in European Parliament
   Bulgarian parliament bans shale gas drilling using 'fracking' method
   EU to ease visa regime with Russia in 2012
   Findings by Polish investigators at odds with Russian report on Smolensk crash
   Albanian opposition criticises acquittal of former PM

*  UNDP research pinpoints areas of social exclusion
*  Roma - implementing the EU Framework
*  Muslim leaders lament restrictive legislation and media bias in central Europe
*  European Parliament 2009 election results
*  Schengen area enlargement
*  How the European Union has grown

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Georgia (Gruziya)
Hungary
Kaliningrad
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Latvia
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Ukraine

UNDP research pinpoints areas of social exclusion

The UNDP report on ‘Regional Human Development Beyond Transition Towards Inclusive Societies’ examines in seven former socialist countries of Europe and Central Asia the level of the population’s inclusion in society.

The report looks at the vicious cycle of poverty from the perspective of those who experience it firsthand. The report presents findings from surveys in six countries and provides an overview of social exclusion in the region and recommended actions. The report also introduces a way to measure the extent to which people are excluded from economic life, social services, and social networks and civic participation.
An estimated 35 percent of people in the region are excluded from society, ranging from 12% in Macedonia to 72% in Tajikistan.

UNDP report Regional Human Development Beyond Transition Towards Inclusive Societies
(pdf 125 pages)

Link: Social exclusion in Armenia

Roma - implementing the EU  Framework

In the wake of last year’s expulsions from France, the EU’s Roma framework has promised to take a tougher line on monitoring member states’ efforts to integrate marginalised minorities.

In the summer of 2010, the Roma became the subject of intense and renewed press attention after the French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, deported about 9,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria, bulldozing the illegal camps in which they lived on the outskirts of French cities.

Immediately NGOs, governments, institutions, organisations - notably the UN, the Council of Europe and EU bodies - and the media engaged in a fierce debate as to whether France was breaching human rights and freedom of movement of individuals by targeting Roma. The incident put the issue of Roma exclusion throughout Europe under the spotlight. It had come halfway through the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, an initiative signed by 12 European countries - all with sizeable Roma populations.

The result was that the European Parliament, in a resolution on the expulsion of Roma from France, called for “concrete and forward-looking measures to improve the social integration of Roma" and to contribute "to improving the situation of Roma".

EU framework goals:

	Education: ensuring that all Roma children complete primary school
	Employment: cutting the employment gap between Roma and other citizens
	Health: reducing the health gap, for example, by cutting child mortality among Roma
	Housing: closing the gap in access to housing and public utilities such as water and electricity

In addition, the EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, announced in April this year that member states had until the end of the year to draft national Roma plans in accordance with the EU strategy for Roma integration and inclusion.

Member states are obliged to develop and implement targeted policies, and devote sufficient resources to promote integration in four priority areas: health, housing, education and employment. The Commission is planning to introduce a robust monitoring regime - including annual reporting on progress - to ensure both that strategies will be properly implemented and the money set aside for Roma projects actually reaches the intended beneficiaries.

That said, the EC noted in April this year that up to €26.5 billion of EU funding is currently earmarked to support member states' efforts in the field of social inclusion, including Roma projects.

Romania is the EU country with the biggest Roma population, numbering around two million, almost ten percent of the country’s total population. More than 90% of the Roma expelled from France in 2010 were Romanian.

Magda Matache, executive director for Romani CRISS, a Roma human rights group based in Bucharest, commented on Romania’s new draft plans to comply with the EU framework. She warned that the Romanian proposals “are very superficial, unprofessional and they don’t prove a clear interest of the government in the Roma issue. I am afraid that the European Commission is preparing its next big failure.”

Robert Kushen, executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre points to the EU framework’s call that all Roma children should complete primary school. “Almost all member states’ national plans on education demand much higher levels. Primary school just won’t give Roma the abilities they need to get a job,” he says, adding that the EU framework recognised what must be done but is, at the same time, lacking ambition.

Other countries  In the period preceding the 2004 accession of the central European states, the European Commission insisted that Roma integration must remain a priority for the Czech Republic, Slovenija, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. On paper, all those countries comply with EU standards on human rights, employment, housing and education. In reality, Roma remain at a distinct disadvantage, facing social deprivation and segregation across Europe.

It was not just France which has targeted Roma.
	Germany intends to return around 12,000 Roma to Kosovo, half of whom are children including many who are German-born, notwithstanding the call to western European states by UNICEF and the Council of Europe to stop forcibly returning Roma to Kosovo.
	Sweden has deported some 50 Roma for “begging”, even though begging is not a crime in Sweden.
	Denmark, Belgium and Finland have summarily expelled Roma in 2010.

Macedonia takes over chairmanship of  Decade of Roma Inclusion

Muslim leaders lament restrictive legislation and media bias in central Europe

Muslim leaders from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia came to Prague on 28 June to share their experiences and to discuss challenges faced by their communities. The numbers of the Muslim populations in the Visegrad countries vary significantly, as do their historic backgrounds. But the debate brought out some challenges which are shared by Muslims across the region: islamophobia, media bias and severe legislative restrictions.

The Muslim presence in Central Europe goes back centuries but today’s Muslim communities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary only began to form in the 1970s and 80s, with the influx of students from the Middle East and North Africa.

The sizes of the present-day Muslim communities in each of the Visegrad Group countries range from around 35,000 in Poland to less than 5,000 in Slovakia. This is one of the reasons why legislation makes it difficult for Muslim organisations to register as religious communities and acquire the same rights as much larger religious groups.

In Poland, Islam enjoys the same status as the Catholic Church and other mainstream religions. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, however, there are far too few Muslims for the group to be granted rights such as teaching religion in public schools, performing service in the armed forces and in prisons. Also, they are not eligible for state funding.

In the Czech Republic, for instance, religious communities may only apply for such rights 10 years after their initial registration and only after submitting 10,000 adult signatures.

Slovak legislation is the most restrictive of the Visegrad countries. There, the law requires 20,000 signatures for a religious group even to register, and Slovakia is perhaps the only European country without a mosque. Muhammad Safwan Hasna is the Head of Slovakia’s Islamic foundation. “According to 18th century data, there were nearly 300 Muslim families living in Bratislava, mostly merchants from the Balkans. A Moorish-style mosque was built at that time that survived until the Second World War. It would be interesting to find out why Bratislava in the 18th century was more tolerant than it is now.”

A Polish researcher highlighted the issue of islamophobia and the role of the media. “I believe that here, the Polish media play a very important role. Instead of providing the public with balanced and informative reporting, they provide stereotypes and they strengthen them. I argue that they create a new folk devil. In the past, it used to be the Jews. But now the Jews are gone, and the Muslims are the new folk devil.”

The leaders of the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Polish Muslim communities said fighting against media bias and prejudice would be crucial for their integration within society. They also noted their communities were dynamically growing, both through immigration and conversion.

Corruption remains major concern across western Balkans

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released in a new study on 17 May. The report Corruption in the Western Balkans: Bribery as Experienced by the Population   is based on a survey conducted last year among more than 28,000 people in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

In the survey citizens of the western Balkans view corruption as the third most important issue that their countries need to address, after unemployment and poverty.

The main focus of the study, funded by the European Commission, was on the actual experience of administrative corruption, rather than people's perceptions. According to the UNODC, "one in six respondents was exposed to some form of bribery with a public official in the 12 months before the survey."

Cash payments were found to be the primary form of bribery in the region: two-thirds of all bribes were paid in cash last year. But there were big differences among the countries. The average bribe ranged from €103 in Albania to €1,212 in Macedonia. In Albania cash payments accounted for the vast majority of bribes, while the other types of bribery, such as the giving of food and drink, of valuables or other goods to a public official were described as "rare exceptions".

Of those who admitted to have paid at least one bribe last year, 28% said they had done so to receive better treatment. As many respondents cited speeding up a procedure as the reason for this, while 16% said they resorted to it to avoid paying a fine; 12% said the money helped them finalise a procedure.

UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov commended the countries for acknowledging the need to conduct the survey and for their efforts to curb corruption. "The areas highlighted in this report provide us with a realistic viewpoint of the on-the-ground situation, which is so critical to authorities as we collectively work together in countering corrupt practices at all levels."

According to EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle, the study "offers a very useful assessment" of the corruption situation in the western Balkans. "The European Commission has been following this issue very closely and attaches great importance to this issue, undoubtedly one of the most important benchmarks for any candidate or potential candidate country wishing to fulfil its European perspective."

European Parliament 2009 elections

Schengen area enlargement

The Schengen area On 21 December 2007 nine newer EU member states, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenija joined the Schengen area. Before then the Schengen area was composed of 15 European countries. Although not part of the European Union two other countries, Norway and Iceland are part of the Schengen area through a co-operation agreement. The Principality of Monaco allows informal entry to Schengen visa holders. Two other countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland, while part of the European Union do not belong to the Schengen area, and Schengen regulations only apply to the European territories of France and the Netherlands.

The Portuguese EU presidency announced in Brussels on 4 October that passport and customs controls at the borders between the new and the old EU member states will be abolished on the 21 December, two weeks before the original date. The Schengen area will open to nine of the new EU states. Portuguese Interior Minister Rui Pereira, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, confirmed that the Schengen expansion should take place just before Christmas this year. The original plan had been to start the new year 2008 with an expansion of the Schengen zone. The border-free zone currently includes 13 EU countries plus Norway and Iceland. Many of the 2004 accession states have said that an end to border checks is essential for their citizens to feel part of the EU. In Malta on 24 September the Ministers of the Interior for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenija and Slovakia had met to endorse progress on the agreement on the border information exchange system called SISone4all. It was agreed that the SISone4ALL project could be successfully implemented and that controls and checks at the internal borders between the Schengen Member States should be lifted by the end of December 2007 for sea and land borders, and by the end of March 2008 for air borders. Cyprus is working to join Schengen in 2009 along with non-EU member Switzerland. Romania and Bulgaria may qualify to be included in 2011.