Insight Central Europe News

EU summit stops short of sinking the constitution

Central European leaders have welcomed the decision at the EU summit in Brussels not to abandon altogether the process of ratifying the European constitution. Instead Prime Ministers of the 25 agreed to postpone the deadline in the wake of the French and Dutch "no" votes. The governments of the new EU members from Central Europe all strongly support the constitution.

The Brussels summit failed to bring progress on a timetable for further EU expansion, which is a disappointment to members from Central Europe, which are broadly in favour of admitting further countries. In Ukraine on Thursday, the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski urged the union to keep its doors open.

Hungary's coalition survives presidential rift

Hungary's ruling coalition has survived the rift caused by last week's presidential election, when the smaller Liberal Party failed to support the candidate put forward by the larger Socialists. This resulted in victory for the opposition candidate Laszlo Solyom. At an emergency meeting the Socialists decided to sustain the current coalition, although the presidential vote has weakened the Socialist Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany.

Polish PM denies spy claims

The Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka has defended himself against claims that he collaborated with the pre-1989 secret police. He said that agents had tried to make him a spy but had failed. Spy accusations against top politicians have been making front-page news in Poland as September's general election and October's presidential poll draw closer. Mr Belka was at one stage a member of the Communist Party.

Hungary and Poland do badly in European healthcare study

Two Central European countries, Hungary and Poland, have come at the bottom of a Europe-wide survey ranking healthcare systems according to consumer value. They were joined by two West European countries, Britain and Italy, at the tail end of an index assessing a number of factors, varying from waiting times to access to information. The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany came top of the list.

Huge Europol operation aims to break online child pornography ring

Police forces from 13 European countries, including Hungary, Austria, Poland and Slovakia searched 150 locations on Tuesday in the hope of breaking an international online child sex ring. Europol said that in a series of raids large quantities of equipment, such as computers, videos and other material containing images of children were seized. This was the largest operation of its kind ever coordinated by the European police organization.

Telefonica takes majority stake in Cesky Telecom

Telefonica's acquisition of the majority stake in the Czech Republic's biggest fixed line operator, Cesky Telecom, is final. The Spanish telecommunications company has paid the National Property Fund a remaining 90 percent of the purchase price and has now taken over the state's 51.1 percent stake in Cesky Telecom, which also owns the country's leading mobile operator Eurotel.

Slovenian swimmer set to conquer the River Vltava

The Slovenian swimmer Martin Strel has begun an attempt to swim the length of the River Vltava that flows through the Czech capital Prague. Starting in the Sumava Mountains in the south of the Czech Republic, he plans to swim 12 hours a day over the period of a week. Strel has already swum the length of the Danube and the Mississippi.