欧盟指责美刺激措施为"通往地狱的路"

European Union hopes for a new era in relations with the US were thrown into chaos yesterday when the holder of the EU presidency condemned American remedies for the global recession as “the road to hell”.
欧盟(EU)希望与美国的关系能开启新纪元，但随着欧盟轮值主席昨日谴责美国对全球衰退的补救措施为“通往地狱之路”，这一希望变得渺茫起来。

Barely a week before Barack Obama is due to arrive in Europe on his first official visit as US president, Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Republic's prime minister, put the 27-nation EU on a collision course with Washington.
捷克总理米雷克·托波拉内克(Mirek Topolanek)令包括27个成员国的欧盟陷于与美国发生冲突的境地，此时距巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)以美国总统身份对欧洲进行首次正式访问不足一周时间。

His attack compounded the confusion that has engulfed EU policy after the Czech leader lost a no confidence vote in the country's parliament on Tuesday,forcing him to offer his government's resignation midway through its six-month EU presidency.
此举加剧了令欧盟政策备受困扰的混乱局面。此前，这位捷克总理在本周二该国议会上遭遇不信任投票，被迫在为期6个月的欧盟轮值主席任期中途为其政府提交辞呈。

Mr Topolanek said EU leaders had been disturbed at a summit in Brussels last week to hear calls from Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, for more aggressive policies to fight the global downturn.
托波拉内克表示，欧盟领导人上周在布鲁塞尔的一次峰会上，听到了美国财长蒂姆·盖特纳(Tim Geithner)要求采取更积极政策抵御全球经济下滑的呼吁，这些领导人对此感到不安。

“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 stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the ‘Buy American' campaign, and so on,” he told a European parliament session in Strasbourg. “All these steps, their combination and their permanency are the road to hell.”
托波拉内克在法国斯特拉斯堡的一次欧洲议会会议上表示：“美国财长谈到了采取持续的行动，我们在春季峰会上对此深感不安……美国正在重复上世纪30年代的错误，例如大范围的经济刺激、保护主义倾向和诉求、以及‘购买美国货'运动等等。所有这些措施结合起来并且持续下去，就是一条通往地狱之路。”

US officials made no comment on the remarks. But the Obama administration says it took great pains to ensure that the Buy American provisions in the $787bn stimulus that the president signed into law last month were consistent with World Trade Organisation rules. It followed, therefore, that any attempt to make them permanent would continue to be consistent with WTO rules.
美国官员未就此番言论置评。但奥巴马政府表示，它曾煞费苦心的确保7870亿美元刺激计划中的“购买美国货”条款符合世贸组织(WTO)规定，因此它会力争任何使这些条款长期存在的举措都将继续符合WTO规定。该刺激计划是在上月由奥巴马签署生效的。