Home Alone: Not Unexpectedly, Europe And Kyiv And Lviv, Ukraine On My Mind ...

"This should have been a year of celebration in central and eastern Europe. It is 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, the 10th anniversary of Nato’s eastward expansion and five years after the European Union began its enlargement into the region: from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the countries that escaped from Soviet rule have much to commemorate.

But the global economic crisis has spoilt the party. Instead of building on the achievements of the past two decades, the region’s leaders are feeling the economic foundations shaking under their feet.

All of Europe is heading towards its worst economic crisis since the 1930s. But compared with the wealthy west, central and east European nations are in a weaker position to respond." ...

Stefan Wagstyl "Variable vulnerability" Financial Times February 25, 2009

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Photo credit: Police guard Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, Current European Union. (c) Associated Press. 2009

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Graphic from Financial Times story:









[Click on image for enlargement.]