Europe Rendezvous

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. In part one of our programme, we're in Budapest to explore some of the biggest recent issues in Hungary: asking government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs whether his country might change its stance on migrants in the face of a threatened loss of EU voting rights; we also meet Greens group MEP Benedek Javor, who tells us his predictions for the next four years under Viktor Orban; our reporters investigate claims of corruption and misuse of public funds; and we visit the offices of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations to hear why the NGO is shutting its doors in Hungary – the first time it’s closed down operations in an EU member state.

Click here to watch part two of the programme, on Slovakia.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace. We travel to both sides of the buffer zone to meet Members of the European Parliament, who tell us what they think Europe should be doing to help its third-smallest member state; as well as the outgoing foreign minister; the Greek Cypriot chief negotiator; Turkish Cypriot officials and citizens; gas experts involved in exploiting precious offshore reserves; and some of the 1,600 Russians who've been granted Cypriot nationality in the last decade under a new fast-track scheme.

We bring you several reports during the show: “Turkish Cypriots: Europe or Erdogan?” by Luke Brown and “Citizens unite for Famagusta” by Raphaëlle Vivent and Guillaume Chamerat.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace. We travel to both sides of the buffer zone to meet Members of the European Parliament, who tell us what they think Europe should be doing to help its third-smallest member state; as well as the outgoing foreign minister; the Greek Cypriot chief negotiator; Turkish Cypriot officials and citizens; gas experts involved in exploiting precious offshore reserves; and some of the 1,600 Russians who've been granted Cypriot nationality in the last decade under a new fast-track scheme.

We bring you several reports during the show: “Reunification, what now?” by Luke Brown and Johan Bodin, “Is gas a game-changer for the future of a united Cyprus?” and “Russia: Welcome to Limassolgrad”, by Luke Brown.

It's the land of Dali, Gaudi, Pep Guardiola, tourism, industries, mountains, sea ports - and most recently, also very vocal and emotional separatist sentiment. Catalonia's regional election on Dec. 21 seems to have sparked as many questions as it gave answers: If 52 percent of the voters chose anti-independence parties, but the separatists won the biggest number of regional parliamentary seats, how can the region move forward?

It's the land of Dali, Gaudi, Pep Guardiola, tourism, industries, mountains, sea ports - and most recently, also very vocal and emotional separatist sentiment. Catalonia's regional election on Dec. 21 seems to have sparked as many questions as it gave answers: If 52 percent of the voters chose anti-independence parties, but the separatists won the biggest number of regional parliamentary seats, how can the region move forward?

For this episode of Europe Now, our Europe editor Catherine Nicholson digs deeper into the hot topics of the moment in the EU's two German-speaking member states.

For this episode of Europe Now, our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson digs deeper into the hot topics of the moment in Europe's two German-speaking member states.

For this episode of Europe Now, our Europe editor Catherine Nicholson digs deeper into the hot topics of the moment in the EU's two German-speaking member states. In this second part of the show, our backdrop is the grandeur of Vienna: Once an imperial capital, it is now the political power centre of a nation balanced between Eastern and Western Europe in more ways than one. Austria and its population of just 8.5 million people find themselves looking for their place in the Europe of 2017 and beyond. We discuss how the influx of 130,000 asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016 was handled; plus our reporters meet people involved in integration efforts - and get invited to a mountain castle to sit down with the lead candidate for Austria's anti-immigration "Freedom Party" (FPÖ).

Click here to watch the first part of the show, on Germany.