text: Beata Javorcik, chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, poses for photograph following an interview at the bank's offices in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After three decades of unprecedented advances in incomes and living standards, theÂ European UnionsÂ eastern economies that abruptly swapped communism for capitalism after the Berlin Wall fell are facing new challenges. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images