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EU monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, yesterday expressed his concern on the situation of banks in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, pointing to Romania as well as Ukraine, Croatia and Serbia.
The commissioner asked the authorities of the EU member states to refrain from making statements that might affect investors" confidence in financial markets: "I am concerned that some public statements have accelerated this evolution. I would ask the authorities of all countries to be careful when making public statements, because markets are very nervous and sometimes do not understand very well".
The European official expressed concern about the high volatility of the national currencies of Eastern European countries. "I am concerned about the volatility of exchange rates in EU countries with floating regimes ", Almunia said, referring to Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic.
He also feels that Austria"s concern over growing pressure by Eastern European subsidiaries of Western banks is legitimate. "I fully share Austria"s concern, everyone agrees on the risk levels of countries such as Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia or Romania", said Almunia.
The situation of banks in Eastern Europe, might be discussed at an emergency summit on March 1st, together with other issues, Czech Prime-Minister Alexandr Vondra, whose country holds the presidency of the EU, said.
The EC Launched the excessive deficit procedure against 6 member states, but not against Romania for now
The European Commission (EC) yesterday launched the excessive budget deficit procedure for six EU member states, after also considering the exceptional circumstances of the economic crisis, and Romania"s case has not yet been reviewed by the leaders of the EC"s bloc. The excessive deficit procedure was launched against France, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Latvia and Malta, as all of them breached the 3% of the GDP threshold for the budget deficit, set up in the EU"s Stability and Convergence Pact.
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