The new EU economic tandem?
Poland and Slovakia will be the fastest growing EU economies this year, reports Warsaw based daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. According to European Commission estimates for 2010, GDP will rise by 1.8% in Poland and 1.9% in Slovakia, significantly outpacing the 0.7% level of growth expected across the EU. “The Polish banking system remained fundamentally sound throughout the crisis, which gave consumer spending a much needed boost”, explains Mark Allen, head of the IMF mission in Poland. In his view, with strong exports and buoyant consumer spending, Polish GDP may well exceed forecasts to rise above 2 %. However, the Poles will still have to overcome problems posed by an increasing budget deficit – expected to reach 7.5% of GDP next year – and rising unemployment, which may jump from the current level of 8.4% to 9.9%. In Slovakia, Respekt reports that economic growth spurred by the January 2009 introduction of the euro did not result in increased inflation – a fact, which has contributed to Slovaks’ growing “fondness for the new money.” A survey quoted by the Czech daily found that three quarters of the population were pleased with the European currency.
In a time of crisis with high unemployment, young Lithuanians are following in the footsteps of their emigrant ancestors. Tens of thousands have left the country in search of a better life, mainly in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The weekly Veidas reports: 
The new Eurogroup meeting on February 9 is not enough to banish the spectre of a Greek bankruptcy. While Athens may largely be responsible for the crisis, the EU and its partners are not blameless themselves. La Stampa argues that their confused messages and the absence of any strategy have transformed a resolvable problem into an explosive chaos. 
Two camps, two theories, and two visions of France: 18 years after the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis, the precise role played by Paris is still the subject of heated debate, fueled by the findings of successive criminal investigations.