EU bailout

EU finance ministers approved plans on Monday that doubled loans available to eastern European members hit by the global financial downturn.

Despite having been doubled to 25 billion euros in December, the emergency aid fund was quickly being depleted. Hungary and Latvia alone drew nearly 10 billion euros from it last year and Romania is seeking five billion euros as part of a larger rescue package put together by the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

The EU fund was designed to help the 11 EU nations, which don't use the euro currency. Most of these are export-dependent, eastern European countries. Their currencies have been hit particularly hard as foreign investors have pulled back, worried about the financial crisis.

The decision to increase money available in the fund was made by the EU's 27 finance ministers, who met in Brussels on Tuesday amid gloomy new forecasts predicting four-percent contraction in the bloc's economy this year.

"It seems these days and weeks (that) the recession is at its worst, but hopefully next year we start coming out of it," said Czech Finance Minister Miroslaw Kalousek, who chaired the EU meeting.

"Hopefully, the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train (traveling) in the opposite direction," he added.