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Inside Europe: The Inside Take on European Affairs 10.10.09
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How much longer can the Czech Republic hold out on the Lisbon Treaty?
Now that Ireland has voted Yes to the Lisbon Treaty and Poland having announced it will sign this weekend, all eyes are on one man – President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic.
The Czech parliament has already approved the treaty and Prime Minister Jan Fischer has said the country will sign this year. But Mr Klaus, a harsh critic of Lisbon, has so far refused to sign it. Czech ratification is currently on hold pending a new legal challenge filed by a group of eurosceptic senators. But as Rob Cameron reports now from Prague, the Czech president has given the first hint that he may be losing his battle against Lisbon. The guns fall silent in one of Britain’s most violent cities.
Britain’s main opposition party the Conservatives have held their final party conference before national elections next year. And the resounding theme of the final day in the northen city of Manchester was how to fix what they call “broken Britain”.
And it’s a theme Manchester knows all about. The city suffered some of Britain's most violent turf wars, and gang-related gun crime became so commonplace the city was dubbed "Gunchester". But now the guns on Manchester's streets have all but fallen silent. Police take some of the credit after several high-profile convictions of gang ringleaders. But as Lars Bevanger now reports from Manchester, the real success story lies in the co-operation between police, voluntary workers and the local community. The end is nigh for corruption in Greece
After a series of corruption scandals surrounding the ruling conservatives, the Greek electorate has voted resoundingly for change in the country.
George Papandreou’s Socialist Party posted a convincing election victory last week and things are going to be very different in future. Our bemused Athens correspondent Malcolm Brabant has this postcard with his take on events. Will milk prices ruin EU dairy farmers?
Hundreds of dairy farmers protested outside European Union headquarters in Brussels this week as Agriculture ministers' met to discuss the crisis in the milk sector.
Farmers across Europe are unhappy at falling milk prices - a combination of high production, decreased demand and a phasing out of milk quotas has sent prices tumbling - down 40% this year alone. Yet the EU is insistent on scrapping the milk quotas as this promotes a freer market, said Sweden’s Agriculture Minister Eskil Erlandsson. Yet farmers say a framework is needed to stop over-production, which threatens livelihoods. Imogen Foulkes has this report from Switzerland, where many farmers say they face ruin. The beef that the EU has with American cattle imports
The US and the European Union have only recently settled one of their longest running trade disputes… over US, hormone-treated beef.
After two decades, the EU is still refusing to import hormone treated American beef, but it has agreed to quadruple its import quotas for non-hormone US beef. So just why won’t Europeans eat beef treated with hormones? Eleanor Beardsley sends us this report on how Europeans prefer to eat and raise their cattle. Just how safe is Italian food?
If that piece of gorgonzola you’ve got hiding at the back of the fridge seems a bit smelly just think what it would smell like if it contained bits of cheese that expired in 1980!
Rotten cheese recycled is just one of the food safety frauds uncovered by Italian authorities, according to two reports released recently. An Italian Government report released this week revealed that 12% of food samples tested by the Health Ministry in 2008 were unsafe. In the latest of a series of investigations police in Rome arrested four people on Tuesday after they found 60 tonnes of food contaminated with mice and bird excrement. Italian police say that the recent increase in confiscated food items demonstrates that their controls are effective rather than an increase in the risk, they also call for more preventive measures and a more active role to be taken by the European Food Safety Authority. Stephanie Raison sat at the table with authorities in Rome to find out how safe Italian food is. Why a mediterannean diet can help battle the blues
Providing of course it’s within the use-by date, consuming food in places like Italy can have positive effects on your mental well-being.
According to Spanish researchers, individuals who follow a Mediterranean diet appear less likely to develop depression. They found depression was more than 30% less likely to develop in people who followed a diet high in vegetables, fruit and cereals, and low in red meat. Earlier, Rob Turner spoke to Professor Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez from the University of Navarra in Spain who helped compile the report. And he started by asking him how they came to their conclusions. Can American style cupcakes stand the heat of the German bakery market?
The humble cupcake has been around for a very long time but it's no longer being overlooked or taken for granted. Recently its popularity has soared, so much so that it's now a must-have fashion accessory.
Gourmet cupcake bakeries have sprung up in fashionable neighbourhoods of LA and New York, cupcakes are being given as gifts and scores of the tasty beauties are even arranged in tiers as an eye-catching replacement for the traditional wedding cake. Well the cupcake craze has spread across the Atlantic and one enterprising young American has opened her own bakery in Berlin. In an attempt to find out why the cupcake has caught on in Europe, and to satisfy his raging sweet tooth, Neale Lytollis went along to investigate.
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