I think there sometimes is, especially on rainy days, a tendency to look rather at your neighbor’s garden in order to avoid a thorough inspection of your own fields. And I also think there are strong forces of habit in Western Europe to approach Eastern Europe as a monolithic block. As a Central European country, the Czech Republic is in a privileged position to look at this objectively. We in the EU should make more of an effort to look more closely and carefully and find all relevant data before the concluding opinion is voiced and harsh blanket criticism spelled out.

The Czech macroeconomic data so far supports your assessment. I have applauded the decision to establish the apolitical National Economic Council of 10 great Czech experts as an advisory and consultative body to the Czech government, with the primary tasks, for the time being, first, to analyze the risks and potential impacts of the global financial crisis on the Czech economy, and second, to propose measures, steps and tools to eliminate or at least mitigate the potential impacts of the crisis. Nevertheless, anyone with a basic grasp of the gravity of the economic situation today cannot express conventional confidence.

As you have already pointed out, the fall of Mr Mirek Topolanek’s government is not related to the global financial crisis and, therefore, is not indicative of any broader political crisis in this part of Europe. The vote of no confidence in the government led by Mr Topolanek was successful at the fifth attempt by the main opposition party 14 months short of the regular date of the next parliamentary elections, and had nothing to do with anything but the internal political situation.

The process of ratification of this treaty in the Czech Republic is under way, the next step being the vote in the senate. The current development on the domestic political scene brings a complication. However, I believe that the ratification in Prague will be successfully concluded this year.