Poland ratified the European Union’s pandemic stimulus package, overcoming a rift in the government to help open the taps for hundreds of billions of euros to flow to all member states, Bloomberg News reported. The approval banished worries that the bloc’s largest eastern nation could torpedo the 800 billion-euro ($961 billion) package after Poland teamed up with Hungary in December to protest efforts by Brussels to attach strings to the money based on adherence to democratic rule of law.
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Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
While the drama of Greensill’s collapse is unfolding in financial centers like London and Zurich, and has sparked a scandal at the top of British politics, blue-collar towns could face the worst consequences if GFG fails to refinance, the Wall Street Journal reported. GFG employs about 35,000 people, mainly in economically deprived parts of Europe, Australia and the U.S., with some sites at risk of closure if Sanjeev Gupta doesn’t secure new finance and governments don’t step in.
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A year-long waiver on insolvency filings has ended in Germany and there are already signs that bankruptcies are starting to pick up in Europe’s largest economy, Reuters reported. Germany introduced the waiver last March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, part of a package of measures aimed at supporting businesses but which gave rise to the charge that the government was simply propping up “zombie companies” with no future. Insolvencies duly fell. But since October, Berlin has phased out the waiver.
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Company insolvencies in England and Wales fell to their lowest level in more than thirty years during the first three months of this year, as government support measures helped businesses hit by the pandemic to ward off bankruptcy, the London Times reported. Britain suffered its sharpest fall in economic output in more than three centuries last year, but government-backed lending schemes enabled companies to borrow more than £75 billion to navigate cashflow problems.
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The European Union on Monday announced a road map to allowing vaccinated people from outside the bloc to travel to Europe, foretelling a more normal and connected continent after more than a year in which its boulevards and beauty have been off-limits to most of the world, the Washington Post reported. The proposal, which could be in place by the end of June, will give hope to travelers from the U.S. and other countries with aggressive coronavirus vaccination programs who are eager to return to some of the globe’s most popular destinations.
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It was a flashpoint in the world of distressed investing: Sanjeev Gupta’s infamous metals empire was falling apart as Greensill Capital imploded, Bloomberg reported. As turnaround specialists sought to grab debt of one his key assets on the cheap, a single U.S. private-equity firm swooped in to buy up the lion’s share — at full price. While the supply-chain saga has sparked a lobbying scandal in the U.K. political establishment, for troubled credit creditors it shows the everyday challenges of deploying the $15 billion lying idle in distressed funds.
The euro-area economy slid into a double-dip recession at the start of the year as strict coronavirus lockdowns across the region kept many businesses shuttered and consumers wary to spend, Bloomberg reported. Reports from some of its biggest members show how far behind the European Union is in recovering from the pandemic amid a slow vaccine rollout. Output in the 19-nation euro area was down 0.6% in the first quarter and declined at nearly three times that pace in Germany. In contrast, the U.S. posted annualized growth of 6.4% — fueled by a rush of household spending.
Budget airline Norwegian Air expects demand for European short-haul travel to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 or 2024, it said as it presented a first-quarter pretax loss of 1.19 billion crowns ($145 million) and Reuters reported. The carrier this month said it aims to raise 6 billion crowns in fresh capital, up from the 4.5 billion originally planned, as part of a scheme to emerge from court-ordered bankruptcy protection next month.
Shares rose in early European trading on Friday after retreating in Asia as the latest batch of economic data provided mixed signals about prospects for the recovery from the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Two surveys showed Chinese manufacturing expanded in April but growth appeared to be slowing. Figures showed Europe’s economy contracted in the first three months of the year, while the U.S. economy steamed ahead, growing at a 6.4% annual pace.
The eurozone is at risk of a “tsunami” of bankruptcies as COVID life-support schemes for businesses are wound up, regulators have warned and The Telegraph reported. A report by the EU's key risk watchdog, which is chaired by European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, said that companies may struggle to stay solvent the longer they relied on emergency financial support. This could cause debt to accumulate, increasing the risk of a pent-up wave of insolvencies.