Inside Europe: The Inside Take on European Affairs 17.10.09

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DATE : Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:05:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2009-10-15 00:00:00
length : 26518965
Link to the Show / Show Notes

This week: Where does EU cash go? - Protests at Sarkozy's nepotism - Payback time in UK MPs expenses scandal - Moral debate over IVF in Poland - Culture vultures aghast at McDo in Louvre - Lack of press freedom in Turkey concerns EU - Bosnian reforms could hinder EU membership - Russia's science brain drain - Italian village pitches up for baseball - Cricket fan's mission to spread the Ashes
Networking for a slice of the EU pie

Bulgaria's new environment minister says the country will forfeit or have to repay hundreds of millions of euros in EU aid because of mismanagement by the previous administration. A third of the EU’s entire budget goes towards funding development in Europe’s regions. It mounts up to billions of euros a day.

And to find out how to get their hands on that cash, representatives from the northernmost tip of Finland all the way down to the coast of Cyprus have attended a huge networking event called Open Days. This taxpayers’ money is meant to go towards projects that will help turn the EU into a dynamic, well-functioning area. But it's not always well spent.

Report: Vanessa Mock

A protest movement is growing in France against the possible appointment of President Sarkozy's son as head of the country's biggest business district.

Jean Sarkozy, who's a 23 year old law student, already leads his father's political party in the area. Opponents are complaining of nepotism but the government says Sarko junior is good enough to apply for the job.

Report: Alasdair Sandford

In Britain, it seems feathering your own nest at the taxpaper's expense could become a thing of the past for MP's. A long running row about parliamentary expenses has suddenly roared back into life.

Legislators have been asked to hand back some of the money they've claimed from public funds over the past five years. And as Stephen Beard tells us in this Postcard from London, the House of Commons is not happy.

A controversial debate about in vitro fertilisation or IVF treatment is underway in Poland as the country's politicians try to adopt a new law to regulate the practice. Fertility treatment is already available in around forty private clinics but the centres are not bound by any rules.

Poland's Roman Catholic Church has weighed in, reminding politicians that it opposes the treatment on the grounds that embryos are killed in the procedure. One Catholic citizen's initiative even wrote a draft law which would have made IVF treatment a criminal offence and sent doctors to prison for up to three years. The parliament threw that bill out at its first reading and it's now considering a handful of others.

Report: Adam Easton

French culture and American convenience will soon come together in Paris. And culture vultures are aghast.

McDonald's is to open a restaurant in the forecourt of the Louvre art museum. But the idea of mixing big macs and the Mona Lisa isn’t popular with everyone.

Report: Eleanor Beardsley

This week, the European Union issued its annual report card on Turkey's bid to join its ranks. And it was a mixed picture.

Ankara was praised for its efforts to resolve a decades long dispute with neighbouring Armenia and for the introduction of certain reforms. But one sticking point remains the freedom of the country's press. That's partly because of a 3 billion dollar tax fine imposed on Turkey's largest media organization which also happens to be critical of the government. The company is now facing the prospect of having its assets seized.

Report: Dorian Jones

If EU membership seems a distant dream for Turkey, the chances of Bosnia-Herzegovina joining the bloc look even more remote. Fourteen years after the war there ended, the country continues to struggle with deep political and ethnic divisions and an unwieldy government.

The country consists of a Bosnian –Serb entity and a Muslim-Croat federation. But Bosnia has less than 4 million people yet it boasts 3 presidents and 13 prime ministers. Last weekend officials from the EU and the US met with Bosnian leaders to talk about constitutional reforms. The international community wants Bosnia to prepare for eventual membership of the EU and NATO. Marko Prelec, is with the International Crisis Group in Sarajevo. Helen Seeney asked him if Bosnia had become a failed state?

According to some estimates, up to 200,000 scientists have left Russia since the early nineteen nineties - in search of a better salary, normal working conditions and prestige. Most of them will never return.

Some of these emigrants now warn Moscow that it should take urgent measures in order to prevent nothing less than a total collapse of Russian science. But Russian leaders have done little to suggest that they take the warning seriously, and, paradoxically, even say Russia aims to become the world leader in the development of nanotechnology.

Report: Geert Groot Koerkamp

Italians are completely crazy about football: from the prime minister’s own team AC Milan in the north of the country to level “D” football in villages in Sicily. But there’s one town outside Rome where America’s pastime rules.

In the small, seaside city of Nettuno, kids grow up playing baseball, a tradition that began during World War II. Inside Europe visited Nettuno to find out why it swings its own way.

Report: Nancy Greenleese

Cricket doesn't have the largest following in Europe – at least not in continental Europe. But a young guy from Britain is trying to change that. He's set off from London, to cycle 25 000 kilometres to Australia carrying little more than a cricket bat.

Oli Broom aims to reach Brisbane in time for the Ashes cricket series between England and Australia in November 2010. He also hopes to raise tens of thousands of euros for charity on the way, and to spread the message of cricket. The 29 year-old's route takes him through France, Belgium and Germany as well as into Africa and across Asia.

Report: Olly Barratt

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