Topic: Eastern Europe

French President, Francois Hollande has cast himself as the European leader pushing hardest to forge a growth-oriented “new path” through the euro zone’s grinding debt crisis, pitting him against the austerity-minded German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the New York Times reports.

A "ring of defense" has to be built around eastern European neighbors Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia to help them cope with the fallout from a possible Greek exit from the euro zone, bankers said on Friday.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects the economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as four countries in the Middle East and North Africa, to experience a "substantial" slowdown this year because of fallout from the euro zone crisis.

When Greece announced on Tuesday that it had made a €436 million bond payment to the hold-out investors who rejected the country's historic debt revamping deal in March, the decision came as no surprise. What’s news is where most of that money went. The NYT reports.

A Greek exit from the euro zone would not make things better for the stricken country or for Europe, Thomas Mirow, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), told CNBC.com in an interview.

Russia's UC RUSAL, the world's biggest aluminum producer, posted an 84 percent drop in first-quarter net profit, potentially fuelling a shareholder conflict over the company's refusal to sell its stake in Norilsk Nickel.

Walking through his high-ceilinged factory here, explaining the production of sheets of copper, M. Brian O’Shaughnessy comes across as a staunch advocate of manufacturing in America.

German lawmakers likely will delay a vote on the euro zone's fiscal compact on budget discipline because the country's main opposition party wants to insert growth-focused measures into the pact, a coalition source told CNBC.

Just weeks ago, the idea that Greece would leave the euro zone was almost unthinkable. Now, with Greece’s newly empowered political parties refusing to abide by the terms of the country’s international loan agreement and Europe’s leaders talking tough, that outcome is looking increasingly likely. The NYT reports.

Global investors resumed their exit from euro zone bond markets in April, cutting their holdings of the bloc's bonds to their lowest level in over a year as sovereign debt woes re-emerged to hit Spain and Italy again.

In Italy, the art of counterfeiting money — like winemaking, pottery, fabrics, and other fine arts for which Italy is justly famous — is often passed from father to son.

Romania's left-leaning opposition will try to form a new government after torpedoing the centre-right cabinet in a confidence vote on Friday, the latest collapse of an austerity-minded ruling coalition in Europe.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgrade of Spain's credit rating Thursday for the second time this year highlights the fact that austerity alone is not enough to tackle the euro zone debt problem. Experts tell CNBC that European leaders need to focus on growth now.

While developed and emerging market stocks have been locked in a neck to neck race so far this year, strategists tell CNBC developed market equities are likely to outperform their Asian peers in 2012.

As Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China tours Europe this week, it is no accident that Germany occupies a special place on his itinerary. The New York Times reports.