The Balkan Chronicle

Overwhelmed by crisis, illegal migrants in Greece return home

Many illegal migrants who travel long distances to reach Greece and then on to other countries in Europe in search of better lives end up in miserable circumstances in Greece, hence more and more of these people apply to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to return home.

Illegal migrants who pay large sums of money to human smugglers to take them to Europe are faced with harsh circumstances in Greece, which has been suffering from economic and social problems for several years. They can neither find a place to stay nor a regular job. So, they decide to return home, but many of them cannot even buy tickets and instead wait for support from IOM.

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EU tests show 1 in 20 beef meals tainted with horse

Thousands of DNA tests on European beef products have revealed extensive food fraud across the European Union, with almost one in 20 meals marketed as beef likely to be tainted with horse, the European Commission said Tuesday.

Releasing the results of more than 4,000 tests in recent weeks to detect the potential mislabelling of beef products, the EU executive said 193 products contained positive traces of horsemeat DNA, or 4.55 percent.

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Eurozone Debt Levels Reach Record High - Eurostat

Eurozone government debt levels reached the highest level on record last year, the region's official statistics office said, even as austerity measures around the single currency area narrowed budget deficits levels amid a deepening recession.

Government debt as a percentage of the eurozone economy 3.3 percentage points to 90.6 percent at the end of last year, Eurostat said Monday in a statement published on its website. At the same time the collective budget deficit of the 17 countries that use the single currency fell to 3.7 percent of Eurozone GDP from 4.2 percent the previous year, Eurostat said. Around the 27-memeber European Union, which includes Great Britain, the figures fall to 85.3 percent and 4 percent respectively.

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China Takes Another Stab At The Dollar, Launches Currency Swap Line With France

One more domino in the dollar reserve supremacy regime falls. Following the announcement two weeks ago that "Australia And China will Enable Direct Currency Convertibility", which in turn was the culmination of two years of Yuan internationalization efforts as summarized by the following: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap",

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Bulgaria To Introduce Flat Tax

The leaders of the three governmental parties in the ruling coalition decided to cut social insurance contributions 3 per cent, up pensions by 10% from October and introduce a flat tax of 10 per cent for individual incomes as of next year. The decision paves a way for a big change in Bulgarian tax system

The meeting was held to discuss the macroeconomic framework of the 2008 budget. Participating were Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Ahmed Dogan of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha of the Simeon II National Movement, the political leaderships of the three parties and MPs.

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Slovenia promises to save its own banks, as doubts grow

Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek has said the country can save its banks by itself, amid growing opinion it will need EU help.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday (9 April) alongside European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, she said: "Day and night, we are dealing with this problem … I'd like to assure you we will solve our problems on our own."

She rejected comparisons with Cyprus, which had to seek an EU bailout to stop its banks, worth almost eight times the island's GDP, from going bust.

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Balkan banks remain unprofitable: Moody's

The Hungarian, Slovenian and Romanian banking industries will remain unprofitable this year as owners cut spending to boost capital during the euro area's financial crisis, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Lenders in Hungary and Romania are hurt by their reliance on funding from parent companies in western Europe, said Simone Zampa, a senior analyst for Moody's, in a phone interview from London.

But Czech, Slovak and Polish banks fund themselves mainly with deposits and will keep reporting profits, he said.

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Russian dominated Oil Industry of Serbia will spread its business at surprising speed

Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) CEO Kirill Kravchenko says NIS will spread its business across the Western Balkans at a speed that will be surprising to many

He also vowed that Russia's Gazprom Neft, NIS' majority owner, would do business "outside politics" and support Serbia's EU integration.

He told EurActiv that NIS would invest up to EUR 3bn in the following years, noting it was important to attract additional investments.

"We want to help the region recover and solve other problems that have to do with the economy. This will not be easy. There will be a lot of work but there is such capacity that makes the region one of the best for future development," Kravchenko said.

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