February 4, 2012  Print Email | EU agrees to double eastern Europe loans
Export-dependent eastern Europe hit hard by the downturn
Posted by Agencies at 11:45 AM GMT on Mar 20, 2009 | BRUSSELS (AFP): The EU is to double the amount of emergency loans available to struggling eastern European countries to €50 billion, diplomats said following a meeting today.
"There is an agreement to lift (the ceiling) to €50 billion," one of the diplomats said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. A second diplomat confirmed the agreement.
The European Commission proposed yesterday to the leaders to double a credit line for struggling non-eurozone members to €50 billion, after the 27-nation bloc had already doubled it to €25 billion in December.
The existing €25 billion credit line is getting rapidly depleted after Hungary and Latvia drew nearly €10 billion from it and others starting with Romania were likely to follow soon.
At the start of the month, EU leaders ruled out a regional bailout plan for eastern Europe, opting instead to extend help to countries on a case-by-case basis as trouble emerges.
Export-dependent eastern Europe has been hit particularly hard by the crisis due to the region's reliance on the capital of increasingly risk-averse foreign investors capital to finance their economies .
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