Taking the helm of the European Union from French President Nicolas Sarkozy is Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a global warming denier who has said in the past that human progress is more important than combating climate change. The presidency of the European Union is rotated every six months between EU member states.
Klaus has called global warming a myth, questioned the sanity of Al Gore and recently said that he hopes the European Union will give up its plants to lead the fight against global warming. Klaus also has strong anti-EU views, and has sharply criticized the EU and former head Sarkozy in the past. He is refusing to fly the European Union flag at Prague Castle, his presidential seat, for the next six months.
From The Guardian:
The European Union is the new Soviet Union, environmentalism is the new communism, climate change is a myth and there is nothing wrong with the international economy that a bit of patience will not fix, according to Klaus. While influential, however, he has little real power as head of state.
As for global warming, the Earth had had the same climate for 10,000 years. The problem was not climate change, but “climate change ideology”. Klaus warned: “We will not be campaigners for the climate package.”
Klaus has railed against the Lisbon Treaty, an EU climate change package that was reformed last February. Being a self-described ‘Euro Dissident’, Klaus has actually worked to lessen the EU’s influence on state governments.
Klaus will likely not play nearly as large a role in the EU presidency as Sarkozy did. The EU presidency is actually shared by the nation’s government, and as Czech president, Klaus has little formal power. Much of the work will fall to Czech’s prime minister, Mirek Topolanek. However Topolanek and Klaus are bitter foes of opposing political parties and many fear that infighting will lessen the country’s ability to run the EU.
Many Europeans are distrustful of Klaus, and with him as the face of the Czech Republic, the job of keeping the European Union together and getting anything of importance done during these chaotic times of economic troubles, Israel-Palestine conflict and global warming may prove to be impossible. The EU may lose precious time on solving important issues over the next six months with the Czech government at the reins.
Link [The Guardian]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
