All of Europe Must Make Cuts, Czech Prime Minister and German Chancellor Agree

Stopping debt, energy security and transportation infrastructure. Those were the main topics of the first meeting between Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and later with German President Christian Wulff. "The Czech and German governments share a viewpoint on decreasing public debt; that countries must be managed very responsibly and that our key task is to stop debt on the European level as well," Nečas said after his meeting with Merkel.

According to the Czech prime minister and the German chancellor, it is also important that a policy of budgetary discipline be promoted throughout the European Union. Living in debt could have very painful impacts as soon as the medium term. "We also discussed transportation infrastructure and the Berlin-Dresden-Vienna rail corridor, which is of great importance to both countries. Another topic was motorway connections, where 20 kilometers of motorway are missing between Lovosice and Ústím nad Labem," the Czech prime minister said. Both heads of state also agreed on support for connecting energy networks and the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline.

Past Czech-German relations also became a marginal issue. The German chancellor said that the Bavarian premier should come to the Czech Republic. According to Nečase, it is not standard that it has not happened yet. "If such a visit is to take place, it must be carefully prepared and I will say this openly: If its basic tone is 'we are returning to the past,' then it will bring nothing positive to our relations," the prime minister added.