Europe Archives

RIGHTS: Iceland Wakes Up to Trafficking for Sex Work

It took the conviction of five Lithuanian men in March, on charges of bringing a 19-year-old girl into Iceland for sex work, before this country truly woke up to the reality of trafficking.

BALKANS: ‘Tito-nostalgia’ Reigns 30 Years After His Death

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

For many former Yugoslavs, May 4 will be a day to reflect on the 30 years since their charismatic but controversial leader, Josip Broz Tito, died.

HEALTH: Injecting Drug Use Spreads HIV in Eastern Europe

By Stephen Leahy

Poor intervention in Injecting drug use (IDU) is driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and is also largely responsible for the tuberculosis epidemic in parts of Russia, says a new study.

ENERGY: Germans Want Nuclear Plants Phased Out

By Julio Godoy

After tens of thousands of people turned out to protest against any extension of life to existing nuclear power plants, it seems clear that Germans continue to be emphatically opposed to nuclear energy.

Economist Mari Cat selling farm produce at a Slow Food Market in Brasov. Credit: Claudia Ciobanu/IPS

ROMANIA: Slow Food – Opportunity for Small Farmers

By Claudia Ciobanu

Mari Cat, an economist by profession, thinks nothing of selling meat, bread and apple juice at a stall in the ‘Slow Food’ market in this central Romanian town.

Portugal Faces Carve-Up by Financial Speculators

By Mario de Queiroz

Worrying economic indicators and gloomy forecasts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are rapidly making Portugal a magnet for international speculative capital.

CENTRAL ASIA: Kyrgyzstan – Wakeup Call For EU, US

By Kester Kenn Klomegah and Claudia Ciobanu

The popular revolt in Kyrgystan this month should "serve as a wakeup call to the European Union and the United States, prompting some serious rethinking of their policy priorities in Central Asia," says a leading area expert.

BALKANS: Freedom Fighters or Freeloaders?

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

When one of Croatia’s best kept secrets, the list of independence fighters enjoying lifelong benefits, appeared on the Internet earlier this month it sparked off a huge scandal in this nation that became a sovereign state after the bloody 1991-95 war with Serbia.

Plumes of ash streaming away from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland. Credit: Lowana Veal/IPS

ENVIRONMENT-ICELAND: Living With Volcanic Eruptions

By Lowana Veal

Incredible as it may seem, daily life for the vast majority of Icelanders is completely unaffected by the volcanic eruption under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, that has left thousands of air passengers around the world stranded due to flight cancellations.

POLITICS-HUNGARY: Rightward Swing Has Fascist Overtones

By Apostolis Fotiadis

In the autumn of 2006 Hungary was rocked by a series of anti-government protests triggered by the release of a tape in which then prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány confessed to his Social-Democratic Party (MSZP) having lied to win elections that year. Now it is payback time.

ENVIRONMENT: Whaling Profitable but Bad for Iceland’s Image

By Lowana Veal

Early April Greenpeace protestors in Rotterdam intercepted seven containers with 140 kg of fin whale meat from Iceland, destined for Japan. They said that the import of whale meat to the Netherlands is illegal, but Dutch authorities turn a blind eye on consignments destined elsewhere.

ECONOMY: Voluntary Simplicity – Answer to Financial Meltdown

By Claudia Ciobanu

The global financial crisis offered an opportunity to reform the economic system and participants in a conference on ‘degrowth’ in Barcelona, last week, appeared determined not to lose it.

RIGHTS: Europe Imports Torture From US

By IPS Correspondents

A U.S. company has admitted for the first time that it exports equipment designed to inflict pain on prisoners to Europe.

POLAND: Many Causes Lose Their Leaders

By Pavol Stracansky

The plane crash which claimed the lives of 95 Polish officials and public figures, including President Lech Kaczynski, has dealt a blow to minority rights movements in the country, activists say.

Apas Kubanychbek Credit: Kester Kenn Klomegah/IPS

Q&A: ‘Kyrgyzstan Has Undergone a Grassroots Revolution’

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

Apas Kubanychbek, who hails from the high mountainous area of Ysyk-Ata in the Chuyskaya province of Kyrgyzstan, was involved in the political movements and democratic struggles of the former Soviet republic in the early 1990s.

RIGHTS: EU Boosts Arms Manufacturers

By IPS Correspondents

Arms traders are to be given a central role in formulating a new European Union (EU) blueprint for stimulating weapons production, it has been confirmed.

EAST EUROPE: Organic Farming Blossoms

By Pavol Stracansky

Eastern Europe's organic food industry is mushrooming as it brushes off the effects of the global recession, and more consumers in the region turn to healthier foods.

BULGARIA: Inhuman Life Sentences Replace Death Penalty

By Claudia Ciobanu

The death penalty was outlawed in Bulgaria in 1998. But restrictive legislation on conditional release, and the overcrowding and precariousness of the Bulgarian prison system makes life hardly livable for some lifers.

Deportation prison at Zurich airport. Credit: Ray Smith/IPS

RIGHTS-SWITZERLAND: Calls to End Forced Deportations Follow Custodial Death

By Ray Smith

Human rights organisations have been demanding an independent inquiry into the death of a Nigerian asylum seeker died while being deported and a stop to all forced repatriations.

EUROPE: Waste in East Going Waste

By Pavol Stracansky

Environment groups have warned that Eastern Europe is plagued with serious and potentially dangerous waste disposal problems as new figures reveal the region has Europe's lowest recycling rates.