SOCIAL POLICY : SOCIALISTS SLAM CZECH PRESIDENT'S VISION.

• Position: Brief article

The leader of the European Socialists, Martin Schultz, has described as "wholly unacceptable" the conclusions of an article written by Czech President Vaclav Klaus and published in The Financial Times, on 7 January.

In the article, Klaus, known for his Euroscepticism, summed up his vision for future EU policies against the backdrop of the global economic crisis. Among other things, he believes thata"The best thing to do now would be temporarily to weaken, if not repeal, various labour, environmental, social, health and other standards', because they block rational human activity more than anything else".

According to Schultz, Klaus isa"trying to turn the clock back on 60 years of progress that has brought peace and prosperity for millions of people in Europe".

MEP Jan Andersson (PES, Sweden), chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social...