For a year, when internet optimism and altruism were at their peak in 2000-01, I spent some of my spare time writing a weekly column on matters relating to Central Europe for an excellent website, Central Europe Review.

CER's team of international writers reported every week on news and culture from the region, providing some of the most authoritative coverage of events of the period including the Serbian Revolution in October 2000 and EU enlargement. The website was edited around the world and around the clock, using volunteer staff in five continents and multiple time zones to meet its publication deadline every Monday morning. It was brilliantly run on no budget, and won several awards, including the NetMedia 2000 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Online Journalism in Europe at the time I was writing for it.

Unfortunately CER never managed to secure any money, and when the internet crunch came the exhausted editors were forced to face facts. It was taken over by the Prague-based Transitions Online (TOL), an admirable rival resource which managed to obtain the necessary funding and continues to operate today.

As of May 2004, it seems that just about all the old CER pages are still online, although not the front page (which now forwards you to TOL's culture page), making it a bit harder to navigate.

I have posted a couple of my articles on this website. A CER author archive page is currently still online, giving access to all my weekly press review columns.

N.B. Central Europe Review should not be confused with another CER, the Centre for European Reform.

Attacking 'Fortress Europe'
A review of The Uninvited: Refugees at the Rich Man's Gate
by Jeremy Harding (London: Profile Books, 2000).
First published in Central Europe Review, 16 October 2000
[read article]

Boasting Before Breakfast
Why the EU should concentrate on eastward enlargement.
First published in Central Europe Review, 12 February 2001.
[read article]

The Irish Lesson
Food for thought for EU applicant countries.
First published in Central Europe Review, 5 March 2001.
[read article]

Oliver Craske CER press review archive page

About Central Europe Review

Awards won by Central Europe Review

Transitions Online

Centre for European Reform