Final Word from Wednesday, September 7, 2011

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The Czech cabinet will address the latest 2012 budget proposal today, and with apuff of magic smoke, the revenue and spending sides have both been increased by acool Kč 99bn compared to the earlier version. It's no magic, insists the finance ministry;the budget has merely been updated to include EU funding. Just last week, PMPetr Nečas wrote in Právo that the fundamental problem in Europe that needs to beresolved is the reliance of debtors and creditors on aid from other countries. With10% of its 2012 budget coming from the EU, the CR is far more reliant on the EU thanits caustic language would ever suggest. According to one estimate, the CR will bethe fifth-largest net recipient of EU funds during 2007-13, and No. 6 on a per-capitabasis. The fundamental question is how long the EU will tolerate such criticism froma country that is taking far more than it is giving, both monetarily and politically.