The summer is hot and the winter mild: Thanks to the Mediterranean climate on Mallorca , the largest of the Balearic Islands is ideal for a relaxing holiday all year round. Depending on what you are planning to do on your Mallorca vacation , a different season is the best time to travel to Mallorca . If you want to spend a beach holiday with…
Category: Europe
SKIATHOS ATTRACTIONS
FLIGHTS, ACCOMMODATION AND MOVEMENT BY SKIATHOX Skiathos Old Port is a cozy holiday destination. Flights and package tours Skiathos has an international airport named after Alexandros Papadiamantis. The airport is located about three kilometers from the city of Skiathos. There are no direct flights from Finland to the island, but there are good flight connections…
Ostrava Travel Guide
Ostrava surprises with its comfort. The Czech Ostrava may seem like a hub of industrial concentration, but the city is also rich in fine architecture as well as active cultural events. The industrial city may also surprise Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic in terms of population. It is located near the…
Vatican City 2010
Yearbook 2010 Vatican City. Of the Pope’s travels in 2010, it attracted the greatest attention to Britain. The trip was made in mid-September and was the first papal visit ever in the United Kingdoms. According to COUNTRYAAH, Vatican City has a population of 825. The Pope visited Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham – the Archbishopric…
United Kingdom 2010
Yearbook 2010 UK. Labor forces urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign as party leader at the beginning of the year, but even this time he was able to remain despite dissatisfaction with his leadership within the party. In January, former Prime Minister Tony Blair testified before the independent inquiry into the Iraq war led…
Ukraine 2010
Yearbook 2010 Ukraine. The year began in a critical economic situation, where before the New Year the government was forced to request increased credit from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its loan commitments and at the same time have the means to pay out pensions and public salaries. According to COUNTRYAAH, Ukraine has…
Switzerland 2010
Yearbook 2010 Switzerland. A diplomatic dispute arose in February when it became clear that Germany had bought a stolen list of names of German taxpayers with accounts in Switzerland of a former bank employee. According to COUNTRYAAH, Switzerland has a population of 8.545 million (2019). Germany defended the purchase and referred to a similar purchase…
Spain 2010
Yearbook 2010 Spain. According to COUNTRYAAH, Spain has the population of 46.94 million (2019). The economic situation continued to be difficult in Spain even as growth turned up among Europe’s other major economies. The country’s credit rating was lowered due to the high loans. The government launched crisis measures in a row to reduce the…
Slovenia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Slovenia. According to COUNTRYAAH, Slovenia has a population of 2.081 million (2019). The bourgeois opposition considered that an agreement with Croatia to resolve a border dispute through international mediation constituted “capitulation” and called for a binding referendum on the issue. Although Prime Minister Borut Pahor signed an agreement on mediation with his Croatian…
Slovakia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Slovakia. In March, President Ivan Gašparovič vetoed a contentious law aimed at strengthening Slovak patriotism. Among other things, the law required that the schools play the national anthem every Monday and that the flag should be in the classrooms. The law was a work of a nationalist party in the government coalition and…
Serbia 2010
Yearbook 2010 In March, Serbia apologized for the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995, when several thousand Muslim boys and men were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces. Parliament adopted, by a marginal margin, a resolution condemning the massacre and apologizing to the victims’ relatives. The International Court of Justice in The Hague had ruled that…
San Marino 2010
Yearbook 2010 San Marino. According to COUNTRYAAH, San Marino has a population of 33,785 (2018). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on San Marino to reform its pension system to overcome deficits. The national football team fought bravely in the European Championship qualifiers but failed to repeat the bravery from 2004, namely to win a…
Russia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Russian Federation. The year was marked by a tug of war between the authoritarian state and growing opposition movements. There were some signs of democratic openings on the part of President Dmitry Medvedev, but a new prison sentence against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s political opponents once again darkened the picture. Land area 17,098,242…
Romania 2010
Yearbook 2010 Romania. According to COUNTRYAAH, Romania has a population of 19.41 million (2019). The government that took office before the New Year was forced into unpopular austerity measures to lower the budget deficit and pave the way for necessary loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU and the World Bank. For Romania,…
Portugal 2010
Yearbook 2010 Portugal. According to COUNTRYAAH, Portugal has a population of 10.28 million (2019). The economic recession Portugal entered into in 2009 continued with unabated strength throughout 2010. This meant that a recurring mantra for the year became austerity measures (mediated by the austerities) and how different parties reacted to them. Land area 92,090 km²…
Poland 2010
Yearbook 2010 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met in early April with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin in Russian Katyn for a memorial ceremony of the thousands of Polish officers who had been massacred there 70 years earlier by the Red Army. The meeting foreshadowed improved Russian-Polish relations, and no one believed that history had…
Norway 2010
Yearbook 2010 Norway. According to COUNTRYAAH, Norway has a population of 5.328 million (2019). Jewish leaders in Norway noted at the beginning of the year harassment and threats to Jewish schoolchildren from Muslim environments. The schools were criticized for not seriously addressing open Jew hatred. In response, Minister of Education Kristin Halvorsen appointed a working…
Northern Macedonia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Northern Macedonia (until 2019 Macedonia). Tensions between the Macedonian majority and the country’s Albanian minority came in the day when schools were ordered from the spring term to introduce first-class Macedonian education for Albanian children. The decision led to a widespread school boycott. According to COUNTRYAAH, Northern Macedonia has a population of 2.077…
Netherlands 2010
Yearbook 2010 Netherlands. The three-year-old coalition government burst in February because of disagreements over the military operation in Afghanistan. NATO wanted to keep close to 2,000 Dutch soldiers. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democratic Party CDA advocated extended mandate for the troops, but the Social Democratic Labor Party bluntly refused. When no compromise could…
Montenegro 2010
Yearbook 2010 Montenegro. According to COUNTRYAAH, Montenegro has a population of 622,182 (2019). Efforts continued to achieve EU and NATO membership. The country participated in the armed operation in Afghanistan and planned to send troops to fight pirates outside Somalia. The major stumbling block was deficiencies in the judiciary and widespread corruption, just as in…
Monaco 2010
Yearbook 2010 Monaco. According to COUNTRYAAH, Monaco has a population of 38,682 (2018). The head of state, Prince Albert, announced in June that he was engaged to South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock. The 52-year-old Albert previously had a reputation for being a bachelor and playboy. Since joining the throne in 2005, he has acknowledged two…
Moldova 2010
Yearbook 2010 Moldova. The nation was persecuted by Parliament’s failure last year to create a majority for the election of new president. The political deadlock slowed down necessary reforms in one of Europe’s poorest and most corrupt countries. According to COUNTRYAAH, Moldova has a population of 3.546 million (2018). The Constitutional Court ruled in March…
Malta 2010
Yearbook 2010 Malta. EU Refugee Commissioner Cecilia Malmström visited Malta on 30 April. Malmström, who had previously criticized Malta’s treatment of refugee children, visited internment camps where children are often forced to live with adults in difficult conditions. According to aid organizations, asylum seekers also lack access to care and school. According to COUNTRYAAH, Malta…
Luxembourg 2010
Yearbook 2010 According to COUNTRYAAH, Luxembourg has a population of 613,894 (2019). Luxembourg’s European Commissioner Viviane Reding caused resurrection when she accused France of treating Roma as badly as Jews during World War II in unusually harsh terms. Reding threatened to bring France before the European Court of Justice for violations of rules on free…
Lithuania 2010
Yearbook 2010 Lithuania. After a GDP decline of close to 15 percent last year, the economy reversed during the second quarter with growth of just over one percent. The upturn continued during the third quarter, but was lower than expected. However, the government continued with severe budget savings to reduce the budget deficit, so that…
Liechtenstein 2010
Yearbook 2010 Liechtenstein. According to COUNTRYAAH, Liechtenstein has a population of 38,378 (2019). The Principality celebrated the 20th anniversary of its membership in the UN by publishing a charity CD along with German record label Permanent Vacation, known for trendy club music. The somewhat original move was the result of a Liechtenstein UN attaché’s contacts…
Latvia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Latvia. The deep economic crisis and the severe budget cuts hampered the government’s cohesion. In March, oligarch Andris Skele withdrew his party, the People’s Party, from the coalition. However, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis continued to rule in the minority and managed to remain in office until the autumn parliamentary elections. Before the election,…
Kosovo 2010
Yearbook 2010 Kosovo. In July, the message came from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which, at the request of Serbia, tested whether Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008 was in accordance with international law. The UN Court answered the question, which for Kosovo was a historically important success. Yet only 69 of…
Italy 2010
Yearbook 2010 Italy. A serious crack occurred during the year in Silvio Berlusconi’s government, and its future was uncertain. According to COUNTRYAAH, Italy has a population of 60.36 million (2019). The controversial leader’s popularity continued to decline, partly as a result of new revelations about contacts with very young women. Close employees began to criticize…
Ireland 2010
Yearbook 2010 Ireland. The crisis in the Irish banking system intensified during the year and the government had to postpone several times to keep the banks alive. The most vulnerable was Anglo Irish Bank (AIB), which in December 2008 had been taken over by the state and whose shares were now falling rapidly. This is…
Iceland 2010
Yearbook 2010 Iceland. According to COUNTRYAAH, Iceland has a population of 356,991 (2019). 2010 was the year when the world learned the name of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Eyjafjallajökull east of Reykjavík experienced several outbreaks during the spring which spread ash clouds across much of Europe and occasionally blocked air traffic in many countries, including…
Hungary 2010
Yearbook 2010 Hungary. Prior to the parliamentary elections in April, the right-wing opposition had a strong takeover in public opinion. The Socialist government, led by the partyless Gordon Bajnai, had implemented unpopular austerity measures with reduced wages and pensions and with increased taxes. The finances had been redressed, but at the same time the people’s…
Greece 2010
Yearbook 2010 Greece. Heavily pushed by the EU and, above all, by the euro area countries, the Greek government struggled to tackle its debt crisis and prevent the economy from falling freely. An urgent EU survey showed that the 2009 budget deficit had been underestimated and was about 15.4 percent of GDP instead of 12.7…
Germany 2010
Yearbook 2010 Germany. The Constitutional Court in February rejected a contentious law on support for long-term unemployed. The fixed compensation levels that applied after one year’s unemployment, equal to all, were sentenced as arbitrarily set. The law was part of the multi-year reform package Agenda 2010, which aimed to reduce government spending. The government was…
France 2010
Yearbook 2010 France. Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was completely acquitted in January of the indictment of false bribery charges in 2004 against party colleague Nicolas Sarkozy, who later became president. Three co-defendants in the so-called Clearstream affair were sentenced to prison, essentially conditional, and in one case fined. de Villepin later formed a…
Finland 2010
Yearbook 2010 Finland. Minister of Local Government and Administration Mari Kiviniemi was elected new chair of the Center Party in June after Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who announced his resignation six months in advance. This meant that Kiviniemi, 41, also took over as prime minister after Vanhanen. She thus became Finland’s second female prime minister….
Faroe Islands 2010
Yearbook 2010 Faroe Islands. In March the Lagtinget presented a proposal for a new constitution for the Faroe Islands, where it was mentioned, among other things, that all power lies with the people of the Faroe Islands. At the same time, the national community was not mentioned with Denmark. The Danish government reacted, saying that…
Estonia 2010
Yearbook 2010 Estonia. At the beginning of the year, 89-year-old wealthy Estonian businessman Harry Männil died in Costa Rica. He was charged with collaboration with Gestapo and participation in the murder of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Estonia during the Second World War. Prosecutors in Estonia had written off the suspicions against Männil in…
Denmark 2010
Yearbook 2010 Denmark. According to COUNTRYAAH, Denmark has a population of 5.806 million (2019). There was another year of conflict and hot debate around immigrants in general and Muslims in particular. At the New Year, Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was subjected to assault and attempted murder in his home in Aarhus. Westergaard escaped and the…
Czech Republic 2010
Yearbook 2010 Czech Republic. After severe political divisions, the Czech Republic had lived with an expedition minister for almost a year, when President Václav Klaus in February announced elections. Former Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek was forced to leave his post as leader of the market-oriented Democratic Citizenship Party, ODS, following scandalous statements about both the…