Our weekly digest of articles about emerging Europe published elsewhere this week, all of which caught our eye and all of which are well worth your time. Listing them here, however, does not necessarily mean that we agree with every word, nor do they necessarily reflect Emerging Europe’s editorial policy.
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How live exports are hurting farmers in Romania
Romania’s lack of meat processing facilities means livestock must be shipped to international markets – at a high cost to both shepherds and welfare.
Read the full story here.
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Fighting words: Journalism under assault in Central and Eastern Europe
The autonomy and independence of the media across much of Europe is under threat from politicians, who launch verbal attacks on journalists, but also from other journalists, who discredit and smear colleagues working for rival publications.
Read the full report here.
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Central Europe set to wrestle Germany for migrants
Despite anti-migrant rhetoric by populist governments, Visegrad Four nations need to keep all the foreign labour they can get.
Read the full story here.
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The radioactive ‘capital’ of the world
Jachymov, a small uranium mining town in the northwest of the Czech Republic, has been key in the field of radioactivity research. More than a century ago, Marie and Pierre Curie based their revolutionary work on radioactivity on material brought from there. It soon became a birthplace of radium mass hysteria and a center of unconventional radon health baths.
Watch the film here.
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Smoke and Firea: The battle to control Bucharest’s pollution
Bucharest is one of the most polluted capital cities in Europe, but the government is struggling to balance the country’s reliance on old, diesel cars with the need to cut emissions.
Read the full story here.
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Top Polish start-ups to follow in 2020
Ask venture capitalists in London, Paris and Berlin where the up-and-coming startup hub is in Europe and many will say Poland.
But which are Poland’s most exciting startups? Which are the ones to watch in 2020?
Read the full story here.
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In Croatia, an unwillingness to examine official failures
A man who shot three men whom he believed were drug dealers to death has become something of a folk hero in Croatia. That says more about the government’s priorities than the man or the people who are celebrating him.
Read the full story here.
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In Hungary, women won’t pay tax if they have four or more children but this is dangerous
With a declining population, the prime minister Viktor Orban has declared fertility a matter of strategic importance for the country.
Read the full story here.
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Where was ‘The Witcher’ filmed?
Your quest this week? Go behind the scenes of the hit fantasy series, which takes swords and sorcery to a variety of locations around eastern Europe.
Read the full story here.
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‘Like Noah’s ark’: Polish art collection with chequered history back on show
Czartoryski collection, parts of which were once the property of Nazis and communists, reopens amid financial controversy.
Read the full story here.
