EASTERN EUROPE: Economies Ride German Export Wave For Growth; But Still Neglected By Foreign Capital.

BLOOMBERG/ Ott Ummelas /
   Eastern Europe is drafting behind Germany's 3.7% economic expansion - its fastest growth since 1991.
    “Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all expanded at a much faster pace than we had expected, while the Romanian economy shrank by less than we thought likely after last quarter’s fiscal squeeze,” said economist Neil Shearing. “The key driver was probably a rebound in industrial exports on the back of continued strong growth in Germany.”
    “The key issue is whether the German export machine can withstand the renewed slowdown in the global economy that appears likely over the next year or so,” Shearing said. “We’re cautiously pessimistic.”

  BLOOMBERG also reports:
     Eastern Europe's nations are struggling to attract foreign capital even as some Asian and Latin American countries struggle to control the flood of hot money from investors seeking higher yields.
   “The countries that need the money the most are the ones with the biggest difficulty,” said economist Nigel Rendell. “They’d like more money from overseas, but I’m not sure they are going to get a great deal more because it’s just too risky.”  
 SEE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-12/global-currency-war-may-miss-investment-starved-east-european-countries.html 

EASTERN EUROPE: Poles And Czechs Lead Recovery.

REUTERS/ ANALYSIS: Michael Winfrey :
     "A two-speed recovery is under way in the European Union's emerging eastern economies, with Poland and the Czech Republic outpacing peers Hungary and Romania for now. Portfolio investors looking for higher yields in sluggish western economies are pouring into the region, but uncertainties remain, including battles over austerity and next year's budgets and the need for Germany's export boom to keep their recoveries alive."
     AND: "Long seen as a safe haven, the Czech crown has led gainers this year, rising 7.6 percent against the euro versus 4 percent for Poland's zloty. But since last month, other currencies have outperformed. Hungary's forint has jumped 5.05 percent after a sharp fall in July."

POLAND: Nuclear Plans Face Severe Funding Delays.

REUTERS/ By Patryk Wasilewski /
        Poland's plans to build its first 18-billion euro nuclear power plant will be delayed by new legal hurdles, funding problems and a lack of skilled workers beyond 2022. Currently, coal provides more than 90 % of the country's power needs. Poland had planned two nuclear plants with a total installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts, but in August pushed back its original deadline to 2022.

EURO: Economists' Poll Says Greek Crisis Will Delay Further Adoption.

REUTERS/  A Reuters poll of 44 economists speculates that the current Greek financial crisis has probably delayed euro adoption by at least a year for the biggest emerging Eastern and Central European economies like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Poland Will Accept U.S. Missile Defense Shield.

NYTIMES/
The SM-3 missile plan is seen as a bid by the Obama administration to convince several Eastern European governments that it is not abandoning the region to improve relations with Russia. The offer may help repair relations with Warsaw and Prague. They have felt snubbed by the Obama administration.

New Czech Weekly Tries Hyper-Local Angle.

GUARDIAN.UK/
There's a new Czech weekly paper called "Nase Adresa" (Our Address) that is run by professional journalists along with interested citizens. They meet in cafés to share news for publication.
The four months old newspaper with online site averages about 30,000 copies per community in seven separate regions with half the subscriptions coming from cafe walk-ins.

Contrarian Euro-skeptic Czech Vaclav Klaus Threatens EU Crisis.

AP VIA GOOGLE NEWS/
The Czech Republic's president, Euro-skeptic Vaclav Klaus, has continuously attacked the Lisbon Treaty. Now Klaus can block it even though he is only a ceremonial head of state — like the Queen of England. Because the Czech Parliament has ratified it, he is legally bound to sign the document. Yet he seems prepared to stall for as long as he can even if polls show that most Czechs want him to sign.
The ultra-conservative Klaus also doubts that humanity is causing global warming and strongly opposes gay marriage.

Irish "Yes" Vote On EU Pressures Lone Eurosceptic,Czech Vaclav Klaus.

BLOOMBERG/
Ireland’s approval of the European Union’s planned governing treaty adds pressure on anti-EU Czech President Vaclav Klaus to give up his one-man campaign against a new-look Europe.
Klaus, 68, is blocking Czech ratification of the treaty, which would create the posts of full-time EU president and foreign minister with the goal of boosting the 27-nation bloc’s global clout.
Klaus was on Czech television yesterday calling the Irish vote “wrong” and said he “will wait for the decision of the constitutional court.”

New Czech Move To Block EU Treaty.

BBC/
Czech senators opposed to the EU's Lisbon Treaty have filed a new complaint against it with the country's constitutional court.
The complaint could create a new delay to treaty ratification, even if Irish voters back the treaty in a referendum on Friday.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a eurosceptic, says he will not sign the treaty until the court decides.
The treaty cannot take effect unless all 27 EU member states back it.

A Hundred Thousand Welcome Pope In Czech Republic.

REUTERS VIA NYTIMES/
"Waving national flags from several neighbouring countries, the crowd heard the pope urge people gathered in Brno, the country's second-biggest city to keep God in their lives.
Many in the crowd came from nearby Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to greet the pope in the Czech Republic, where centuries of religious wars and decades of brutal Communist repression have made it one of the world's most secular countries.
The three-day visit is his first trip to the central European country in 12 years and precedes the 20th anniversary in November of the 'Velvet Revolution' that ended decades of Communist totalitarian rule."

Pope Faces Challenge In Czech Republic.

AP VIA WSJOURNAL/
While scores of pilgrims poured into Prague for the nation's first papal visit in 12 years, most Czechs shrugged it off or were openly hostile.
"It's just a waste of money," said Kveta Tomasovicova. "At a time of economic crisis, when our salaries are going down, the visit is a useless investment."
Secularism is so ingrained in the modern Czech Republic, "the practice of religion is reduced to a minority," said the pope's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Fitch Ratings Downgrades Central Europe.

BLOOMBERG/
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will suffer deteriorating state finances even as the global crisis subsides, pushing up debt levels and raising the risk of ratings downgrades, Fitch Ratings said.

Czechs To Delay EU/Lisbon Treaty Signing.

LONDONTIMES.UK/
"EU leaders are said to be furious that the Czech Republic is planning to delay signing the Lisbon treaty for up to six months even if the Irish vote "yes" in their referendum next month.
The country might even try to delay it until after the British general election campaign when a Tory victory would see the question put to voters by David Cameron.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who helped to draw up the treaty after the French and Dutch voted against its predecessor, the EU Constitution, has warned Prague that it faces "consequences" if it does not swiftly follow an Irish "yes" with its own ratification."

Missile Shield's Only Purpose Was To Provoke Russia.

GLOBALPOST/Opinion/H.D.S. Greenway/
"When President George W. Bush committed the U.S.to putting up a missile shield in Poland, with radar facilities in the Czech Republic, the Russians raised holy hell.
The installations would have made very little difference in the strategic balance between Russia and the West. Russia has enough missiles to overwhelm such a slender defensive reed.
What got the Russians was that it was so obviously an anti-Russian move. The Cold War was supposed to be over, Russia said, and the move further depressed U.S.-Russian relations that reached a post-Cold War low under Bush."

Poles And Czechs React To Missile Defense Shield End.

GUARDIAN.UK/
"We are disappointed," said Eugeniusz Smolar, a former head of Warsaw's centre for international relations.
"I'm surprised," said Alexandr Vondra, the former Czech deputy prime minister and ambassador to Washington who led the shield project.
"The Americans only cared about their interests. They used everybody else," said Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and revolutionary leader. "It wasn't that the shield was that important, but it's about the way, the way of treating us."
Both the Poles and the Czechs have reputations as Eurosceptics, wary of the EU's biggest powers, Germany and France. That could change.

Early Financial Analysis Of US Missile Pullback In Easern Europe.

REUTERS/
"It is something people are looking at but it has had no impact today," said Nigel Rendell, emerging markets strategist at Royal Bank of Canada.
"In some ways, it is negative because it means you will not get the inflow of foreign direct investment that would have come with building the missile shield but at the same time it is positive because these places would have been first in the firing line if anything happened."
Regional markets, the rouble, zloty and Czech crown were unaffected by the news, with investors more focused on oil prices in relation to Russia and attempts to rein in budget deficits in central and eastern Europe.

Czech Political Stalemate Stalls Necessary Budget Cuts.

BLOOMBERG/
The political impasse over early elections in the Czech Republic is preventing the interim government from taking steps to reduce the budget deficit.
The Czech Republic is heading for a budget SHORTFALL of 7.4 percent of GDP this year and the deficit will remain at that level in 2010 if politicians “remain passive,."

Starbuck Eyes Eastern Europe For Growth.

GLOBALPOST.COM.
Stabucks announced plans to double its stores in Eastern Europe over the next five years.
Already, "the joint venture has nine shops in the Czech capital and two more in Poland — one in Warsaw and another in the southern city of Wroclaw, where Starbucks’ partner, the restaurant operator AmRest, is based. The expansion plans include spreading out to other Czech cities and into Hungary, according to Tereza Prochazkova, a spokeswoman for the regional venture. Starbucks already has several outlets in Romania."

Czech Court Cancels Election.

BLOOMBERG.COM.
The Czech Constitutional Court invalidated President Vaclav Klaus’s call for a parliamentary ballot on Oct. 9-10, deepening the political turmoil over holding early elections and risking a budget crisis.
The political crisis would leave the country with a provisional 2010 budget without necessary spending cuts.

Profile: The Bad Boy Czech Artist.

NYTIMES.COM.
The Czech attitude is not to be proud of being Czech,” says David Cerny, 41. “It is a positive thing for me, but it also has a dark side, which is that we never won any war. In America, people are taught to be proud and as visible as possible. Here in this country, we are taught to be silent and invisible.”