Belka takes summer break while workload appears to be increasing

Prime Minister Marek Belka went on a fortnight vacation just two months after receiving a vote of confidence in Parliament and having pushed through very little of his ambitious agenda. Belka promised to undertake a number of initiatives to combat unemployment, such as lowering the tax burden on lowest income earners or paying social contributions for some unemployed from the state budget. He has also pledged to make the property development procedure easier in order to support investment. The government is yet to present bills introducing these measures. In contrast, Belka's predecessor Leszek Miller, who was the P.M. for two and a half years, never took a holiday as long as two weeks. Belka's interim Cabinet can be compared to that of Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki in 1991, who held the top job for eleven months and never took a holiday. "I always felt there was no time for it," he reminisces. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A1) T.J.