Romania has been through so much since the fall of Ceausescu and Communism in 1989. It has now been an EU member for 12 years and has just held the EU presidency for the first time, but its people remain among the poorest in the bloc. In this programme we explore how corruption scandals have been shaking the government and why well over three million Romanians have left to build a future elsewhere. We find out what this means for them and for the country they left behind.

Romania has been through so much since the fall of Ceausescu and Communism in 1989. It has now been an EU member for 12 years and has just held the EU presidency for the first time, but its people remain among the poorest in the bloc. In part two of our show, we take a closer look at concerns that Romania is becoming the waste basket for Western Europe, as well as why so many French medical and veterinary students are headed to the country.

It's a patchwork country at the heart of the patchwork continent that is Europe: a country of 11 million people, with three official languages, and the de facto capital of the EU. In this edition of Europe Now, we head to Belgium.

It's a patchwork country at the heart of the patchwork continent that is Europe: a country of 11 million people, with three official languages, and the de facto capital of the EU. In this edition of Europe Now, we head to Belgium.

As new political winds blow in Italy, FRANCE 24’s Europe team looks beyond the stereotypes in the country of "la dolce vita". It's been almost a year since Italy's populist Five-Star Movement and far-right Lega (League) party joined forces to form a new government, ousting the centre-left Democrats.

As new political winds blow in Italy, FRANCE 24’s Europe team looks beyond the stereotypes in the country of "la dolce vita". It's been almost a year since Italy's populist Five-Star Movement and far-right Lega (League) party joined forces to form a new government, ousting the centre-left Democrats.

Europe Now travels to Estonia this month, 27 years since the country emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our European Affairs Editor, Catherine Nicholson meets former foreign minister-turned MEP Urmas Paet, plus filmmaker Ilmar Raag, to find out how Estonia has evolved in the past quarter century.

It’s been 100 years since the Baltic states declared their independence – and 27 since they emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Europe Now, FRANCE 24’s European Affairs Editor Catherine Nicholson takes us to the smallest of them. In Estonia, she meets President Kersti Kaljulaid who gives us her view on security threats from Russia, and tells us why she still has confidence in NATO, despite criticism and threats to the body from US President Donald Trump.

In 2018, Hungary and Slovakia have both been under scrutiny over their behaviour as European member states. Both countries are facing European sanctions for refusing to participate in an EU quota system for re-distributing asylum seekers around the bloc. Slovakia has gone from a forgotten EU member state to front-page news after the murder of an investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak, who had been investigating links between the Italian mafia and individuals close to the former prime minister.

The River Danube isn’t the only thing that links Hungary and Slovakia. Both countries share a common history – as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, as members of the Cold-War era Eastern bloc, and since 2004, as members of the European Union. In 2018, Hungary and Slovakia have both been under scrutiny over their behaviour as European member states. Hungary has come under fire for what Brussels sees as pressure on democratic institutions, the judiciary, the independent press, and more.