Brussels, 09/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on behalf of the Presidency of the Council on Friday 6 February, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek slammed the latent protectionism demonstrated by his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in his comments on relocating French car producers. “The attempts to use the financial crisis to introduce such forms of protectionism and protective measures may slow down and threaten the revival of the European economy as well as the trust of consumers and investors. The French president wants to protect the interests of his country and I, as the Czech prime minister and president of the European Council, will protect the principle that 'the same rules apply to everyone', and thus deliver one of the added values of our membership of the internal market,” Toplolánek says in a press release. “I do not understand the argument that it is unjustifiable to manufacture cars for the French market in the Czech Republic. In my opinion it is a completely legitimate and voluntary decision of these companies as well as a fulfilment of one of the principles of the internal European market. The preservation of these principles is not only in the interest of the Czech Republic but it is also a prerequisite for the cohesion of all member states,” he said. In a televised interview the previous evening, Sarkozy had called for an end to relocation and, if possible, for there to be “re-localisation”. “If you give money to the car industry to restructure, the last thing you want is to hear that a new factory is about to go to the Czech Republic or elsewhere,” Sarkozy went on, in comments that were criticised both in the Czech Republic, where the industry minister Martin Riman warned of the threat that “large-scale protectionism by the large states deepen and extend the crisis”, and in Slovakia, where the economy minister Lubomir Jahnatek accused France of being “very counter-productive”. (E.H./transl.rt)