Final Word from Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Hand in hand with the Green Deal's unstated objective of the deindustrialization of Europe is the demobility of Europe, for lack of a better term. Nearly all of the EU's green-transformation measures, from emissions allowances to the combustion-engine phase-out, will make it more expensive to get from one place to another. Less travel, after all, means less carbon. Just recently Vice PM Karel Havlíček swore allegiance to the EU's climate targets, yet the Czech finance ministry also hired a new CEO for Prague Airport, Radomír Lašák, who is supposed to help the Babiš government address one of its priorities, that of the further development of Prague Airport. For outgoing CEO Jiří Pos, this meant plowing ahead with expansion plans, including a new parallel runway. For Lašák, a former management consultant, it should mean mapping all of the EU's demobility measures and estimating their mid- and long-term impact. He might find that Prague Airport won't need that controversial new runway after all. [ demobilization detransportization deindustrialize ]