US Recovery Plan the 'Road to Hell'

US President Barack Obama's stimulus plan has been condemned as "the road to hell" by the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

The US plans to spend nearly US$2 trillion to stimulate the US economy and has been critical of some EU countries for not planning similar big spending stimulus packages. Germany has been particularly reticent to splurge out. Prime Minister Topolanek was reporting back to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on last week's EU summit. He said EU leaders had been disturbed by calls from the US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner for EU stimulus spending similar to the US's. Topolanek said:

"The US Treasury secretary talks about permanent action and we, at our spring council, were quite alarmed at that.

"The US is repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimulus's, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the Buy American campaign, and so on.

"All these steps, their combination and their permanency, are the road to hell.

"We need to read the history books and the lessons of history and the biggest success of the (EU) is the refusal to go this way.

Wednesday's outburst comes eight days before President Obama is due in Europe for the G20 summit of the world’s developed and emerging economies. After the summit and a NATO meeting, Obama will fly to the Czech Republic for an EU-US summit, at which Prime Minister Topolanek will represent all 27 EU member states. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the EU parliament it was:

"Not helpful ... to try to suggest that Americans and Europeans are coming with very different approaches to the crisis.

"On the contrary, what we are seeing is increased convergence.

US officials have so far declined to comment on Topolanek’s remarks.