Final Word from Tuesday, February 4, 2014
In the ANO stable, Pavel Telička stands out, unlike Jaroslav Faltýnek, because he made a complete break with the past, at least on paper. He closed his Prague-Brussels lobbying firm, BXL Consulting, in preparation for leading ANO in the EU elections. A review of BXL's financial statements shows that it had combined revenue between 2006 and 2012 of Kč 246m and pretax profit of Kč 105m, for average revenue of Kč 35m and profit of Kč 15m, not including any salaries paid to partners. Telička's 38% ownership stake was worth about Kč 5.7m per year, not counting the €76,065 he earned per year as an NWR board member. NWR also accounted for about 20% of BXL's revenue. As an MEP, Telička will earn some Kč 2.6m per year. Why is he willing to take a two-thirds pay cut? The lure of politics is one reasonable explanation. Another is the expected bankruptcy of NWR, which will wipe out a big part of his annual income. [Czech Republic OKD BXR Zdeněk Bakala European Union]
Glossary of difficult words
stable - a group of people trained by the same person or under one management; a building set apart and adapted for keeping horses;
MEP - Member of the European Parliament;
lure - attraction; something that tempts or that is used to tempt a person or animal to do something;
to wipe something out - to eliminate something completely.