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The Regions This Week
March 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Central Europe
Slovakia's Bratislava region was the sixth most productive region in the European Union in 2017, with 184% of the European average GDP per capita on a purchasing power parity basis, according to statistics released by Eurostat. Czechia's Prague region had 182% of the EU average, and finished seventh.
The European Parliament on March 1 voted in favour of the European Commission’s proposal to take action against Poland over its judiciary reform because it undermines the rule of law. The EU lawmakers easily pushed through a non- binding resolution supporting the Commission’s stance that proposes to strip the member state of its voting rights in the bloc.
Polish state-controlled Bank Pekao reported a doubling of net profit y/y to PLN1.05bn (€250mn) in the fourth quarter, Poland’s second-largest lender by assets announced.
Czech Minister of Justice Robert Pelikan said President Milos Zeman intervened in favour of sending Russian hacker Jevgenij Nikulin, who is in Czech custody, back to Russia rather than to the US. The US has accused Nikulin
of stealing data from LinkedIn, Dropbox and FormSpring.
The Czech government is to investigate
why Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim
was detained in Prague on February 24 after
it admitted that there was no Interpol warrant issued for the politician. Muslim was released
on February 27 on condition he does not leave the EU. Ankara has issued a diplomatic note with sharp language criticising the Czech Republic for Muslim's release.
An independent candidate backed by Hungarian opposition parties scored a stunning upset
at a mayoral by-election in the town of Hodmezovasarhely, a Fidesz stronghold, on February 25, in a vote widely perceived as
a dress rehearsal for the April 8 general election. Peter Marki-Zay, a political outsider won by a whopping 16pps, garnering 57% of the votes with the voter turnout exceeding 61%, an all-time record in a mayoral race.
The Hungarian government approved a 12-point proposal about the UN migration package at
its cabinet meeting, which will be submitted to the president of the UN General Assembly. The cabinet will launch an information campaign
on the topic. Hungary considers the package’s premise that migration is a positive and unstoppable phenomenon unacceptable.
The after-tax profit of the Hungarian banking sector rose by 50% y/y to an all-time high of HUF632bn (€2bn) last year, lifted by the lower bank levy, but mainly due to the reversal of risk provisions, according to a report from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank. The profit reported by banks equals a 16.1% ROE.
Hungarian rules on granting concessions to operate traditional casinos and online gambling regulations restrict competition and breach
EU law, The European Court of Justice said. The ECJ said Hungarian law discriminatively prevents operators based in other EU member states from accessing the Hungarian market.
Hungarian drug maker Richter announced on February 26 that it has lowered long term sales targets of its key original drug Esmya in the EU and Latin American and will take an impairment loss of HUF42bn (€134mn) as a result. The European Medical Agency suspended treatment with the company’s uterine myoma drug two weeks ago after reports of serious liver injury experienced by patients.
Lithuania's 2017 GDP growth came in at 3.8%
in unadjusted terms, a second estimate released by Statistics Lithuania showed. In seasonally adjusted terms, growth was 3.8% in 2017.