The neighbouring countries have multi-billion fiscal stimuli for their ailing economies, and the Czech Republic has 250 anti-crisis proposals from the National Economic Council (NERV) and 52 anti-crisis points from the opposition ČSSD.
Most of the proposals would be good for the Czech economy if the economic crisis was not here now, but in about two-to-three years when the measures would have some effect. That the opposition, with no government responsibility, would use the anti-crisis programme to attract voters is predictable, but it is much less understandable with the government and its council. The council was supposed to secure a transfer of information between the sad economic reality and the government. But it seems that instead it passes information between the government and representatives of allied industrial sectors. But then there is a threat that the anti-crisis package would only result in some influential businesses capitalising on public budgets.
Not long ago, government politicians laughed at ČSSD proposals. How could the Lisbon Treaty stimulate the economy? Why raise sickness benefits? Are we going to save the economy by faking illness again?
But now the government will soon stop laughing. Instead of a decisive and clear ten pro-export and employment-boosting measures, the government has set up a council to which it now points in front of the public and says: “They will save us!” What it does not emphasise so much is that the council was ordered not to raise debts. And Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek is the one to decide on the council proposals anyway. If this fiscally-strict budget keeper just wanted to make the air foggy in order not to pay a single crown more than necessary, then he’s been successful. NERV itself is lost in its 250 proposals. What it agrees on will be sent by Kalousek to the consultation process that will take months.
It might have been a certain displeasure about the course of events that made NERV members use the council to at least promote their own interests. Martin Jahn of Škoda Auto is very cool about this issue, saying: Let’s introduce “scrap fees” and buy Škoda cars! The truth is that people would start spending more money. But at the same time, it would mean heavy subsidies for a single company that, on top of everything, is not Czech.
The university teachers club in NERV promotes investment in science. This is of course right, but until the Charles University becomes Cambridge, this crisis and dozens of others will fade away.
The core of the problem with NERV rests in the way the council was founded. Industry representatives who were not elected cannot give the Czech Republic the right anti-crisis medicine. It is only up to the government to stimulate the export-oriented economy in a balanced way and promptly by faster write-offs and state guarantees and to provide its voters with jobs by means of cuts to the mandatory social insurance.
