Italy and France call for changes to the Schengen Treaty. 25 years after the Chernobyl blast, Europeans question the future of nuclear power.

The News: Schengen reform? - Chernobyl anniversary

In the event of a mass influx of migrants

France and Italy want to restore  border controls within the Schengen area.

25 years after the Chernobyl disaster,  two months after Fukushima,

Europeans wonder about  the future of nuclear power.

And the rest of today's news in pictures.

Should the Schengen Agreements  be suspended or renegotiated?

In view of the influx of refugees from  North Africa to the island of Lampedusa,

the subject will soon be  on the EU’s agenda.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi  and French President Nicolas Sarkozy

met in Rome on 26 April  to discuss the issue.

Our response must include a new  European neighbourhood policy

focusing on concrete investments  as well as on results.

Young people must stay in their region  and cooperate with the institutions,

to make it possible that freedom, dignity,  security and above all employment

Rome granted temporary residence  permits to some 8,000 migrants,

allowing them to move freely  within the Schengen area.

Most boarded trains to Ventimiglia  in order to continue to France.

On the border, those without the means  to support themselves were turned back.

and there is inaction  on the part of the European institutions

who should not only  have foreseen this crisis

but also have had a common  EU approach to the refugee issue.

The Schengen Convention is often seen  as a big step in EU integration.

Yet France and Italy now want it to be  revised to cope with temporary crises.

when EU ministers are expected  to meet to discuss it.

Here in the city of Colmar  in eastern France

the Chernobyl nuclear blast  is still fresh in people's minds.

These anti-nuclear activists have been  fasting for days in front of the Préfecture

to demand the closure of the Fessenheim  nuclear power plant, France's oldest,

The lessons of Chernobyl  have not been learnt...

There have been technical failures  at the Forsmark plant in Sweden.

Nuclear meltdown was 7 minutes away.  This was three years ago.

25 years on,  the city of Chernobyl in Ukraine

is still a highly radioactive,  abandoned area.

Official figures put  the number of dead at 4,000.

MEP Michèle Rivasi, who visited Ukraine,  believes the figure could be much higher.

At first the International  Atomic Energy Agency reported 53 dead.

Other institutions speak of 100,000  to one million dead, in the years to come,

because cancer can manifest itself  up to 30 years later.

To combat the release of radiation  from the Chernobyl plant,

the European Commission  has invested 580 million euros

in the construction of a sarcophagus  around the reactor.

The United Nations, the European Union,  the Red Cross and civil society

are all helping in minimising  the health effects on the population,

The results of the stress tests on EU  nuclear plants should be known this year.

They are eagerly awaited, given the  consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.

With Greek debt now  close to 143% of GDP,

many warn against the risk  of the country's bankruptcy.

The Greek Minister of Economy thinks it'd  be a disaster for their financial system.

It could risk contaminating  the rest of the eurozone.

Representatives of the IMF, ECB and EU  are expected in Athens in early May

Germany and Austria open up  to Polish, Czech and Hungarian workers.

Fearing an influx of immigrants,  they were the only EU countries

to delay opening their labour market to  many East European nationals until 2011.

Germany expects 100,000-140,000  entrants per year on the short term.

The fifth edition of  the European Health Award.

Organised by the European  Health Forum Gastein,

the award rewards initiatives  to improve health systems in the EU.

Particular attention is paid to combating  disparities in access to health services.

The deadline for applications is 6 June.  The winner will receive 10,000 euros.