Czechs to hold EU summit on crisis and unemployment

The Czech EU presidency will call an extraordinary EU summit in May on the continuing economic crisis and its impact on unemployment. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso made the announcement after meeting with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek in Brussels on Wednesday. The Czech prime minister said that the meeting of heads-of-state and government leaders would be held in Prague and would be informal. The aim: to streamline and put into practice measures aimed at buoying employment during the economic downturn. The Czech Republic alone saw more than 40,000 lose jobs in January.

Another extraordinary summit, to discuss the impact of the crisis on the European economy, has been set for March 1 in Brussels. On Wednesday Czech President Václav Klaus repeated earlier criticism that he did not think the summit would prove effective.