Final Word from Thursday, September 29, 2011
The jurisdictional battle over the appointment of a state secretary for EU affairssubsided after Petr Nečas and Karel Schwarzenberg each named someone to thepost. Nečas's man, Vojtěch Belling, will coordinate EU matters on the domesticlevel, while Jiří Schneider will stand in for Schwarzenberg abroad. We're not entirelyserious, but perhaps the same model could be used for finance minister. MiroslavKalousek could handle such domestic issues as raising taxes, overstating economicgrowth, pushing untransparent tenders and insulting MEPs and female ministers,while a second finance minister could deal with such matters as the EU debt crisis,the financial-transactions tax and the euro opt-out. There's no shortage of qualifiedpeople who speak English and would be delighted to attend Ecofin meetings, somethingthat "emerging Europe's best finance minister" hasn't found much time for.
Glossary of difficult words
jurisdictional - of or relating to the sphere of activity over which a court or other institution has legal authority;
MEP - member of the European Parliament;
Ecofin - the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the Council of the European Union; Kalousek has allegedly missed more than 40% of the meetings.