The management of Polish state-run oil company PKN Orlen has selected a consultancy to develop a concept for the future of the Lithuanian Mažeikių Nafta refinery. The possible sale of the refinery would have a considerable political impact for the government, points out the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: “Partially privatised, but still under the control [...]
Latvia registered slight economic growth in the second quarter for the first time since the crisis began. Although Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has already announced the end of the recession, the daily Dienas Bizness sees no reason for euphoria yet: “The current data on economic growth are no guarantee that the rapid recovery will continue [...]
Vilnius (rian) – Lithuanian gas company Lietuvos Dujos and Polish Gaz System signed a memorandum on the construction of the Amber pipeline, which was abandoned by Russian oil giant Gazprom in favor of the Nord Stream pipeline. The proposed 460 kilometer pipeline has a capacity of 5 billion cubic meters of gas a year and [...]
According to the Latvian Ministry of Finance, Latvian banks showed good results in an EU-wide stress test mandated by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) in cooperation with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the EU national supervisory authorities. The test was aimed at assessing [...]
The board of directors of the Polish postal services has approved General Director Andrzej Polakowski’s restructuring plans, which are to prepare the company for the full liberalisation of the Polish postal market in 2013 and provide for the axing of 8,000 job. The online edition of the news magazine Polityka backs the plan: “Together with [...]
Since taking office in March 2009, the government of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has been addressing Latvia’s economic downturn during a global economic crisis that struck especially hard in Latvia’s main trading partners, especially Europe. In recent months Prime Minister Dombrovskis has been invited to speak to numerous international audiences about the measures Latvia has [...]
This week the EU finance ministers removed the last hurdles to Estonia’s introduction of the euro in January 2011. The daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat is delighted: “To the surprise of many, Estonia has streamlined its economy and brought down unemployment. … As a result it has more reason to belong to the Eurozone than Greece for [...]
Sweden comes out well in a pan-European comparison of carbon dioxide emissions, but it could do better, writes the tabloid Expressen: “This is partly owing to our geographic advantage in having many rivers whose hydropower we can exploit and partly the result of political astuteness in deciding to build nuclear power stations and allow their [...]
The first pipe string of the Nord Stream Pipeline hit dry land in Germany’s coastal resort city of Lubmin, the Nord Stream AG project operator said on Monday. MOSCOW (rian) – Dr. Georg Nowack, Nord Stream AG project manager for Germany, said the onshore connection was made on July 3 and was right on schedule. [...]
Italian carmaker Fiat wants to transfer production of its Fiat Panda model from Poland to a plant in southern Italy and introduce longer working hours there to match those in Poland. This approach should be a model for other Western companies, finds Danuta Walewska in the blog of the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita: “This will really [...]
