PM calls economy crisis summit

In response to what has been seen as French "protectionist" measures, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek called Feb. 9 for an emergency European Union summit to discuss individual government responses to the economic crisis, to be held as early as the end of the month.  

The move comes less than a week after French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested French auto manufacturers withdraw their Czech operations, and coincides with Sarkozy's plan to bail out ailing auto manufacturers, including PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Renault, with approximately 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion/171 billion Kč) in federal loans.

When announcing the summit, Topolánek said the Czech Republic, as well as the rest of the 27-member EU, was committed to avoiding "protectionist" mistakes of the Great Depression by keeping international trade channels operating, and that Sarkozy's most recent actions thus went against EU principles.

"Sarkozy directs his proclamations to the French public rather than to the rest of the EU," Topolánek said in a prepared statement. "Of course, every politician is, above all, responsible for that country whose voters enabled him to be in power. … We are officially in charge of the EU now and thus we are going to point out any politician's diversion from the common framework or from the European standpoint, be it Sarkozy or anyone else."

Czech EU presidency spokesman Jiří Potužník said details of the summit, including date, location and final agenda, have yet to be determined, but could be expected later this week.  

"Topolánek wants the summit to be a time for the different nations to see which of their instruments are working and which ones are not," Potužník said. "He has been in touch with many other European leaders and government institutions, and they all agreed that organizing an informal summit makes sense in these early months of 2009."

Potužník downplayed the suggestion that Sarkozy's actions had prompted the summit entirely, noting similar suggestions made by other countries. "Sarkozy's [actions] are perhaps the most visible, but in fact, many other countries have been searching for ways to solve their financial problems. … As president of the EU, the Czech Republic has a duty to keep individual countries informed as well as offer some discussion on how to collectively solve them."

Curtis Wong can be reached at
cwong@praguepost.com