Klaus in the Lion's Den

The EU's new President for the next six months, Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, looks set to stir things up and make himself even more unpopular amongst the colleagues in Brussels.

In an article in FT.com, entitled 'Do not tie the markets - free them' he says:

As regards the EU's "constitutional" stalemate, the Czech government will - hopefully - not lead Europe to an ever-closer union, to a Europe of regions (instead of states), to a centralised, supranational Europe or to an increasingly controlled and regulated Europe masterminded from above. It will keep stressing its EU presidency slogan "Europe without barriers", which means the advocacy of further liberalisation, removing trade barriers and getting rid of protectionism.

Our historical experience gives us a clear instruction: we always need more of markets and less of government intervention. We also know that government failure is more costly than market failure.

That certainly won't go down well with the autocrats in charge.

I look forward to seeing what smears, lies, innuendos and attacks Klaus is going to be subjected to over the next six months.