A look at what's happening across Europe
Hungary  Parliament voted overwhelmingly – and apparently in defiance of EU laws – to block any foreign takeover of the country's largest and most strategic organisation, the energy company MOL. Parties on the left and right agreed that if an attempted hostile merger by Austria's OMV – which already holds 20% of MOL – were to succeed it would be detrimental to the national interest. Proponents of MOL's continued independence point to the fact that OMV is a largely state-owned company and is arguably less efficient than MOL. Many Hungarians also worry about OMV's friendly links with leading Russian companies, in particular Gazprom. Hungarian-Russian relations clearly remain a touchy subject in Budapest, especially after an earlier Gazprom attempt to take over MOL. UK  The City continued to measure the fallout of the first run on a British bank since 1866, Northern Rock, with many predicting that the most important single sector of the British economy has suffered serious damage to its reputation. Observers argue that the tripartite system of financial regulation – established by the Labour government – failed and that the light-touch approach of the FSA needs to be reexamined, along with the UK's inadequate system of deposit insurance. Separately, prime minister Gordon Brown suffered in opinion polls after his last-minute decision to 'bottle' on holding early elections for fear of losing laid him open to accusations of political cowardice and 'treating the British public like fools'. Although elections do not have to be held until 2009, the opposition party now has the political advantage. The Netherlands  Seven months after the British bank Barclays launched its bid for ABN Amro, the twisted and highly complex saga of the takeover concluded with Barclays withdrawing from the bid and its rival, a consortium comprising Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander securing the bank for a record €70bn, making the takeover the largest ever in banking. Mark Fisher, an RBS executive who led the integration of the bank's merger with NatWest, was named the new chief executive of ABN Amro. Analysts say the bank's future remains unclear with parts of it expected to be sold off while the core investment side is retained. Caucasus  Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Azerbaijan and Georgia agreed to back an extension to the Odessa to Brody pipeline through Ukraine, taking it to Plock in Poland, in what analysts said was a further attempt to reduce energy dependence on Russia. The project would enable oil to be transported from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to Europe, bypassing pipelines owned by Russia's Transneft. Few details were given regarding costs, start or finish dates, or throughput, but analysts were doubtful about the project given the number of competing pipelines running through Russia and the alreadystrong competition for Caspian oil. Ukraine  The third parliamentary election in as many years gave Yulia Tymoshenko's party the edge, raising hopes that she would become prime minister and preside over an Orange coalition comprising her group and Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, excluding the pro-Russian Party of the Regions from power. Although past experience does not reassure, observers were hopeful that the lack of reforms over the past year would prompt co-operation between the two former Orange Revolution colleagues, who fell out when President Yushchenko sacked the populist Tymoshenko as prime minister just months into the government's term in 2005. Although Ukraine has enjoyed economic growth, reforms have lagged while investors remain concerned at the non-transparent business environment, which under the outgoing government continued to be dominated by oligarchs. Turkey  Ankara's growing sense of exasperation with the outside world – which has become manifest in an increase in Turkish nationalism – intensified after a committee in the US House of Representatives condemned it for genocide against the Armenians during the First World War. With President Bush concerned that a formal vote by the whole House could lead to Turkey abandoning co-operation with the US military over Iraq, Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly to allow the army to launch attacks over the Iraq border to prevent further incursions by the Kurdish PKK into Turkish territory. Any attack by Turkey would destabilise the one part of Iraq to have enjoyed relative stability during the conflict. Poland  Poland's governing party was emphatically defeated in an October election. The largest turnout since independence, 54%, rejected the isolationist and nationalistic Law and Justice party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The result is good news for the business community – the new Civic Platform government is liberal, pro-Europe and committed to reform – they aim to adopt the euro within five years. However, the job will be made difficult by President Lech Kaczynski, the twin brother of the outgoing prime minister, who will be able to veto any legislation unless Civic Platform can build a coalition of 60% or more of the parliament. Switzerland  In parliamentary elections held on October 21, Swiss voters returned the same four-party coalition that has held power for decades. However, support grew for the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) on the back of a controversial anti-immigration poster campaign. The Swiss went to the polls at a time of unprecedented prosperity, with unemployment and other economic indicators more benign than for years, thanks to an easing in the value of traditionally strong Swiss franc against an even stronger euro. With the EU Switzerland's major trading partner, the strong euro is expected to boost exports and tourism. The EU After months of fraught highlevel meetings among officials representing the EU's 27 members, agreement was finally reached on the new treaty that will govern institutional arrangements within the expanded Union. For leaders of the large countries such as the UK, Germany and France, the decision to sign the treaty – and have it approved by their respective national parliaments – is politically risky, as opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority of voters felt the new treaty was almost identical to the constitution rejected at referenda by French and Dutch voters, and should therefore be voted upon directly. |