Policy brief

The EU's Role in Supporting Crisis-Hit Countries in Central and Eastern Europe

Publishing date
31 December 2009
Authors
Zsolt Darvas

The crisis has hit central and eastern European countries harder than other regions of the world. In this policy contribution Resident Scholar Zsolt Darvas looks at the role of the EU and its institutions in supporting crisis-hit CEE countries; the stabilising effects of the EUÂ’s coordinated multilateral financial assistance; and the commitment shown by Western European banks to the region. However Darvas argues that there were certain actions, or failures to act, on the part of EU institutions and governments, that have amplified the effects on CEE countries of the crisis. The European Central Bank has given little direct support to non-euro-area countries, and the EU has done little for EU neighbourhood countries. Meanwhile, euro-area membership has shielded from the crisis some countries with worse fundamentals than certain CEE countries.

About the authors

  • Zsolt Darvas

    Zsolt Darvas is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and part-time Senior Research Fellow at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He joined Bruegel in 2008 as a Visiting Fellow, and became a Research Fellow in 2009 and a Senior Fellow in 2013.

    From 2005 to 2008, he was the Research Advisor of the Argenta Financial Research Group in Budapest. Before that, he worked at the research unit of the Central Bank of Hungary (1994-2005) where he served as Deputy Head.

    Zsolt holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Corvinus University of Budapest where he teaches courses in Econometrics but also at other institutions since 1994. His research interests include macroeconomics, international economics, central banking and time series analysis.

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