HUNGARY/ ROMANIA/ SLOVAKIA : Hungarian Passport Demand Surges Under New Citizenship Law.

BBC/ Laurence Peter /

    Thousands are applying for Hungarian passports at Romanian consulates in regions that used to be part of Hungary after a new citizenship law took effect
   One expert said "hundreds of thousands" would apply in Transylvania, northern Romania. Officially Romania has about 1.5 million ethnic Hungarians, though some estimate "nearly two million".
   Some Slovakian politicians have condemned the law because southern Slovakia has about 500,000 ethnic Hungarians, nearly 10 percent of the population.

EUROZONE: Some In Eastern Europe Now Balking At Euro Adoption.

BBC/ Laurence Knight /

     Many nations in central and eastern europe are thinking long and hard about their promise to adopt the euro when they signed up for the EU.
     The "PIIGS" (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) were caught in the euro trap because the boom years hyped labor and public finances but the bust has left them uncompetitive with a major debt. But inside the euro zone, the easy cure, currency devaluation, is not available.
      Now, some pols and much of the public in the Czech Republic and Poland don't really want to join the eurozone.

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."

EUROLAND/ROMANIA: As Own Governments Ignore Them, Roma Test EU Borders...And Nerves.

NYTIMES/ SUZANNE DALEY :    "Migration within the 27 nations of the European Union has become a combustible issue during the economic downturn. The union’s latest expansion, which brought in the relatively poor nations of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, has renewed concern that the poor, traveling far from home in search of work, will become a burden on wealthier countries. The migration of the Roma is also raising questions about the obligations of Romania and Bulgaria to fulfill promises they made when they joined the union. Romania, for instance, mapped out a strategy for helping the Roma, but financed little of it. Mr. Sarkozy has demanded that the Romanian government do more to aid the Roma at home."

AND: “There is nothing to focus the minds of policy makers like an army of poor people heading your way,” said Bernard Rorke, the director of Roma Initiatives for the nonprofit Open Society Foundation.

For a report on Roma living and working conditions in Romania, SEE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/17/roma-france-dreams-better-life

HUNGARY/ROMANIA/SERBIA:The Trio Struggles To Sell Enough Debt.

BLOOMBERG/ Gordana Filipovic/
   Hungary, Romania and Serbia needed $55 billion in IMF bailouts in 2009. Now they can't find enough debt buyers as spending cuts weaken government power and concerns grow about stalled recovery.
Filipovic: "Serbia and Romania failed to sell the planned amount of debt on offer this week while Hungary paid more today to sell all of its debt by allowing the yield to rise. Hungary failed to sell the planned amount of 12-month debt on Sept. 2 as concern the central bank might raise interest rates damped investor demand."

HUNGARY: IMF Talks End Abruptly With $20 Billion Euros At Stake; Big Forint Sell-off.

REUTERS/     The IMF abruptly ended two weeks of talks with PM Viktor Orban over disagreements about plans to control budget deficits. At stake is $20 billion euros. “This is definitely negative for bonds and negative for the currency, both in speculative terms and in real flows,” said Nomura economist Peter Attard Montalto. “For an IMF statement, it’s pretty damning." Investors sold off the currency, the forint, to a 14-month low, while bond costs soared. The governments of Romania and Latvia may be challenged next.
(V.Orban foto)

ROMANIA:1ST UPDATE: Hundreds Of Thousands Protest Austerity Cuts.

BBC/      A revised estimated of  200,000 public sector workers   protested in Bucharest proposed wage cuts of 25% and pension cuts of 15% to reduce the country's budget deficit.  It was the biggest demonstration since the Romanian Revolution.

EASTERN EUROPE: 2010 Economic Forecast.

BUSINESSWEEK/        Poland and Slovakia will expand 2.7%, compared with an average of 1% for the 27-member EU, projects an EU report. The Czech Republic will grow 1.6% and Hungary will stagnate. Germany may grow by 1.2%.

Virtual Political Chaos In Romania.

GLOBAL POST/ Sorting out the current mess in Romania.
There is anger throughout Romania after the minority government fell with a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The demise of centrist Emil Boc's government has people doubting the nation's stability.
“It’s been terribly hard this year with the economy going bad, but it seems that it can get even worse now, due to this political circus,” said Alina Marian, whose monthly bills amount to 80 percent of her total income. Like most Romanians, Marian gets paid in RON but has loans in euros.

The IMF Hits Political Turbulence In Eastern Europe.

AP/
The IMF still faces political opposition in Eastern Europe though it has somewhat repaired its reputation as a austere authority.
The IMF increased its fiscal flexibility and started a no-strings loan program for countries considered relatively good risks. Mexico and Poland benefited from this new flexible credit line.

Romanian Prime Minister Loses No Confidence Vote; Economy Threatened.

BLOOMBERG/ Detailed account/
Romania’s minority government lost a no-confidence vote that threatens economic reforms linked with an international bailout and prompting talks on a new administration."

Profile: Romanian-Born Nobel Literature Winner Herta Muller.

LATIMES/
An ethnic German born and raised in Romania, Herta Müller wrote about the harsh life under the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Müller, a novelist and short story writer is virtually unknown in the U.S., but she was considered one of the top contenders for the Nobel, along with Israel's Amos Oz and Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa.

Romania Dedicates Monument To Holocaust Victims.

AFP Via GOOGLE NEWS/
Romania unveiled a monument in memory of 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed there during the Holocaust. In the past Romania has denied that the extermination happened.

Romanian Woman Wins 2009 Nobel Literature Prize.

AP Via Yahoo/
Herta Muller, a 56-year-old Romanian-born author, persecuted for her depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature. Muller, a member of Romania's ethnic German minority, was honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

Romanians Agree Prostitution Should Be Legal But Not Drugs.

ROMANIANTIMES/
A survey shows that more than half of Romanians would agree to legalizing prostitution, following the recent proposal of a presidential committee.
But Romanians are against the decriminalization of drug consumption, a survey made by eResearch Corp shows.

Romainian Politician Gives Nonsense Speech In Parliament To Test Colleagues.

ROMAINIAN TIMES/
A Romanian MP gave a nonsense speech in the Chamber of Deputies but no one appeared to notice when her colleagues applauded her at its end.
Liberal Adriana Sfatoiu read quotes from American journalists and politicians on themes ranging from terrorism to cancer treatment without anyone noticing.

Romanian Economy Predicted To Contract Again.

BLOOMBERG/
Romania’s economy, which the central bank says is exiting recession, will contract for a second year as unemployment and bad debt rise and the government cuts spending, Neil Shearing of Capital Economics said.
“It’s premature and a bit worrying to start talking about recovery,” said Shearing. “Clearly the outlook has improved but there are still too many downside risks. We see economic contraction of half a percentage point next year.”

Madonna Booed In Romania For Defending Gypsies.

AP Via KYIV POST.

Madonna stopped her two-hour concert in Bucharest to tell her audience that discrimination against the Roma(gypsy)people made her "sad."
Thousands of the 60,000 concert-goers booed her.

Recession Causes Deep Eastern Europe Deficits.

BLOOMBERG.