US President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan has been condemned as “the road to hell” by the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
The US plans to spend nearly US$2 trillion to stimulate the US economy and has been critical of some EU countries for not planning similar big spending stimulus packages. Germany has been particularly reticent to splurge out.
Prime Minister Topolanek was reporting back to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on last week’s EU summit. He said EU leaders had been disturbed by calls from the US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner for EU stimulus spending similar to the US’s.
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Posted in: EU Watch
Three murders in Northern Ireland have brought both depression and hope. The killings of security personnel come against a background of escalating violence and threats by dissident republicans.
On the evening of Saturday Mar. 8, The Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers. Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, died in an attack at the Massereene Army base, Antrim. The attack left two pizza deliverymen wounded.
On Monday Mar. 9, the Continuity IRA shot and killed police constable Stephen Paul Carroll, 48, as he answered an emergency call in Craigavon, county Armagh. This is the first murder of a Northern Irish police officer since 1998.
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Brussels this week and has hit the EU with a charm offensive. Both the EU and the US had expressed hopes of rebuilding trans-Atlantic relationship that had become strained under the previous administration.
Secretary Clinton can feel the visit a success. She started Friday with a town hall style question and answer with young Europeans at the European Parliament. This was streamed live across the EU on Europe by Satellite.
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The Bank of England, The UK’s central bank, cut interest rates to 0.5 percent yesterday. This is the sixth month in a row that the Bank has cut rates. Interest rates are now at the lowest ever in the Bank’s 315-year history.
The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King announced that “quantitative easing” would start next week. The Bank will add an extra £75 billion (US$100 billion) to its books then use this cash to buy government and corporate securities from commercial banks. It hopes that these banks will then invest or loan this cash back into the economy.
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