AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
BERLIN, March 25 -- The president of the European Union today ripped the Obama administration's economic policies, calling its massive deficit spending and bank bailouts "a road to hell."
The comments by Mirek Topolanek, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency, startled some U.S. and European officials, who are busy preparing for Obama's visit next month to several European cities, including Prague.
In an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Topolanek abandoned diplomatic niceties and blasted Washington for approving a $787 billion economic stimulus package, which he said encouraged "protectionist" trade policies. He said Washington's overall strategy for ending the recession would flood global markets with too many dollars and lead to bigger problems in the future.
"All of these steps, these combinations and permanency, is the road to hell," Topolanek said. "The United States did not take the right path."
Topolanek's critique came just one day after his government in Prague was toppled by a no-confidence vote by opposition lawmakers in the Czech parliament. Although he will remain prime minister for the time being, his shaky position at home raised questions about whether he could remain effective as the E.U.'s president until his country's six-month term expires at the end of June.
"I think this was just an attempt to show he's a force still to be reckoned with and not a walking-dead politician," said Katinka Barysch, deputy director at the Center for European Reform, a London think tank. "For him to come out with his guns blazing does seem a bit odd."
Topolanek's words, however, underscored a fundamental divide that persists between Washington and many European countries over the best way to respond to the global financial crisis.
U.S. officials have pressed European counterparts spend substantially more public money in an attempt to revive economic growth and global trade. Some countries, led by Germany, have strongly resisted, predicting that such a path could lead to unsustainable debts and runaway inflation.
Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads a coordinating body of countries that use the euro currency, said European countries had already spent enough to jump start their economies.
"The European stimulus plans are muscular, they are demanding, they are important in volume and in quality," Juncker said Wednesday in an interview with France's Europe 1 Radio. He said there was "no question" that the EU would reject requests from Obama to spend more.
Obama begins his transatlantic mission next week with a stop in London for a summit of the Group of 20 leading industrialized countries. Many European leaders have said the primary goal of the summit should be to impose greater regulation and oversight on global financial markets, instead of more government spending.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country will host the G-20 summit next week, downplayed the rift Wednesday and said there was room to accommodate both objectives. Brown has tried to mediate differences among Washington, Berlin and other European capitals at odds over the summit's agenda.
"What we are suggesting is that we have, together, to look at what we have done so far cumulatively," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday during a visit to the United States. "And I see a consensus, not a disagreement on that."
But the 27 member countries of the European Union have had difficulty expressing themselves with a single voice.
Topolanek's speech to the European Parliament angered some legislators, who rebuked him for presuming that all members of the E.U. agreed with his harsh criticism of Washington, or the way he delivered it.
"You still haven't understood what the job of the E.U. presidency is," said Martin Schultz, a German legislator and leader of the Socialist bloc in the parliament.
Topolanek rushed back to Prague after his speech to tend to his fallen government. Other Czech officials played down his remarks and blamed translators for making them sound harsher than they were intended.
"I was there and listened to the speech in Czech and he never mentioned the word 'hell,' " Alexander Vondra, the deputy Czech prime minister, told reporters in Strasbourg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032502074.html
The comments by Mirek Topolanek, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency, startled some U.S. and European officials, who are busy preparing for Obama's visit next month to several European cities, including Prague.
In an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Topolanek abandoned diplomatic niceties and blasted Washington for approving a $787 billion economic stimulus package, which he said encouraged "protectionist" trade policies. He said Washington's overall strategy for ending the recession would flood global markets with too many dollars and lead to bigger problems in the future.
"All of these steps, these combinations and permanency, is the road to hell," Topolanek said. "The United States did not take the right path."
Topolanek's critique came just one day after his government in Prague was toppled by a no-confidence vote by opposition lawmakers in the Czech parliament. Although he will remain prime minister for the time being, his shaky position at home raised questions about whether he could remain effective as the E.U.'s president until his country's six-month term expires at the end of June.
"I think this was just an attempt to show he's a force still to be reckoned with and not a walking-dead politician," said Katinka Barysch, deputy director at the Center for European Reform, a London think tank. "For him to come out with his guns blazing does seem a bit odd."
Topolanek's words, however, underscored a fundamental divide that persists between Washington and many European countries over the best way to respond to the global financial crisis.
U.S. officials have pressed European counterparts spend substantially more public money in an attempt to revive economic growth and global trade. Some countries, led by Germany, have strongly resisted, predicting that such a path could lead to unsustainable debts and runaway inflation.
Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads a coordinating body of countries that use the euro currency, said European countries had already spent enough to jump start their economies.
"The European stimulus plans are muscular, they are demanding, they are important in volume and in quality," Juncker said Wednesday in an interview with France's Europe 1 Radio. He said there was "no question" that the EU would reject requests from Obama to spend more.
Obama begins his transatlantic mission next week with a stop in London for a summit of the Group of 20 leading industrialized countries. Many European leaders have said the primary goal of the summit should be to impose greater regulation and oversight on global financial markets, instead of more government spending.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country will host the G-20 summit next week, downplayed the rift Wednesday and said there was room to accommodate both objectives. Brown has tried to mediate differences among Washington, Berlin and other European capitals at odds over the summit's agenda.
"What we are suggesting is that we have, together, to look at what we have done so far cumulatively," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday during a visit to the United States. "And I see a consensus, not a disagreement on that."
But the 27 member countries of the European Union have had difficulty expressing themselves with a single voice.
Topolanek's speech to the European Parliament angered some legislators, who rebuked him for presuming that all members of the E.U. agreed with his harsh criticism of Washington, or the way he delivered it.
"You still haven't understood what the job of the E.U. presidency is," said Martin Schultz, a German legislator and leader of the Socialist bloc in the parliament.
Topolanek rushed back to Prague after his speech to tend to his fallen government. Other Czech officials played down his remarks and blamed translators for making them sound harsher than they were intended.
"I was there and listened to the speech in Czech and he never mentioned the word 'hell,' " Alexander Vondra, the deputy Czech prime minister, told reporters in Strasbourg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032502074.html
