PM says: pension reform not urgent

The Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has shocked politicians and economists by saying that there was no urgent need for a pension reform in the Czech Republic. In an interview for the Bloomberg agency published on-line, the Prime Minister said that the current reform system would not overburden the state budget for another 20 years and that the increasing birth rate would further improve the situation. There is no urgency for reform in this sphere, Mr. Paroubek said, sweeping aside EU warnings regarding the need to speed up reforms of the pension and health care systems. The head of one of the smaller governing parties Miroslav Kalousek of the Christian Democrats has said that dallying with the pension reform would be irresponsible.