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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
On Sunday Anne Ollila became the first woman to head the Reindeer Herders’ Association of Finland. Both she and the reindeer herding sector face great challenges, writes the daily Lapin Kansa: “The challenges are not insurmountable because a Finn never leaves a reindeer in the lurch. Lapland wouldn’t be Lapland without reindeers. The reindeer herding [...]
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have introduced tough budget cuts in the economic crisis. The measures have paid off, finds former Danish foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in his blog for the conservative daily Berlingske Tidende: “The three Baltic countries have halted the economic decline and are on their way back up. … They learned the hard [...]
Poland’s economic growth rate, which for some time has been among the highest in Europe, is likely to slow down in the second quarter, writes the online edition of the news magazine Polityka: “The second quarter will certainly not be strained by the winter, but nor will its results be impressive. We recall that the [...]
