Word: downturned
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...post-1989 boom in central and eastern Europe - when new E.U. members enjoyed average GDP growth around 5.6% per year from 2000 to 2008 - has been punctured by the current economic downturn. Many of the new E.U. countries are on a downward spiral as credit dries up, demand collapses, currencies tumble and unemployment surges. Some of the E.U.'s older members are suggesting they may have opened the doors to the club prematurely: they grumble that the new members are dragging the E.U. down further into recession. And there are calls to pull up the drawbridge on other would...
...when the financial crisis hit, these darlings of international capitalism found their open economies amongst the most vulnerable. The International Monetary Fund - recently involved in bailouts for Hungary, Latvia and Ukraine - now forecasts a 3.7% drop in GDP for the central and eastern European region for 2009. The downturn has brought down governments in Latvia and Hungary, and a prolonged crisis could translate into further political instability. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...member states," says George Dura, a researcher at the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies. "It's unfair and selfish to regret a decision when times are lean, but to reel in the profits in good times. The old E.U. countries, who are partly responsible for the economic downturn, need to show more solidarity with their poorer neighbors...
...There are more countries perched on the E.U.'s outer rim, eager to join, but the downturn means they are probably in for a long wait. A plan to draw poorer neighbors such as Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine closer to the E.U. will be launched on May 7. But this "Eastern Partnership" - which nudges them towards European norms of democracy, open markets and the rule of law - is also jeopardized by the crisis. "When E.U. member states themselves are entering dire straits, it will also be increasingly difficult to commit more E.U. funding for the neighbors," says Nicu Popescu from...
...solution, not the problem, argues E.U. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. "While combating the economic recession, we must not make E.U. enlargement a scapegoat for it," he said in a speech last month. "Questioning our commitments on E.U. enlargement will not help us at all to tackle the economic downturn. Let's keep in mind that our economic troubles are not the fault of a Serbian worker or Croatian civil servant." He may well be right. But in this gloomy economic climate, they are easy targets. And they are learning the hard way just who their real friends...