The thoughts of Klaus

He arrived in Brussels, fired up the European Parliament, criticized an “EU too remote from citizens” and left once again for Prague: Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, addressed the EP in an official speech on 19 February, reaffirming the will of his country to support the process of European integration, though without considering it “a dogma”. Economist, political leader and government exponent in the post-Communist era, Klaus presented his laissez-faire idea of a Union corresponding to that of a “great free market”.“A country at the heart of European history”. Many expectations were aroused by the intervention of the Czech President in the European Parliament, especially since he represents the country that now holds the rotating Presidency of the EU. Klaus has never disguised his doubts about the Lisbon Treaty (though he signed it as Head of State in 2006) and said he preferred the name of “Organization of European States” to that of European Union. During the referendum campaign in Ireland he explicitly supported the Libertas party, opposed to the Reform Treaty. More recently he refused to have the blue flag with the 12 stars displayed over Czech public buildings. In the chamber in Brussels, nonetheless, Klaus was received, to the sound of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, i.e. the European anthem, with warm applause and with the flattering words of the President of the EP, the German Hans-Gert Poettering: “Your nation – he said – has been historically the beating heart of European thinking. Prague is one of the cultural and spiritual capitals” of the old continent and “today the Czech Republic is playing a positive role as current President of the EU”. The political manipulation of the market. In his speech to MEPs, Vaclav Klaus recalled “the uniqueness of the Community experiment” and the commitment of the Czech government “to tackle the great challenges of our time”. “For us there is no alternative to membership of the European Union”, he declared. “The citizens of the Czech Republic believe that European integration fulfils a necessary and important mission”, in which first place is taken by “the elimination of barriers that are useless and counter-productive for human liberty and prosperity, and that obstruct the free circulation of persons, good and services, ideas, political philosophies, and cultural and behavioural models”. The second objective is “the common management of existing public goods at the continental level that cannot be managed by bilateral negotiations between states”. President Klaus then presented his free-market vision of Europe: “We need sincerely to admit that the current economic system of the EU is that of the suppression of the market and the continuous reinforcement of the centralized management of the economy”. The “real cause” of the crisis that the continental economy is suffering from today consists just in this: that crisis, Klaus believes, is “not due to the market but, on the contrary, was generated by the political manipulation of the market”. “We aren’t disappointed by the Union”. Klaus explained to MEPs that “in three months’ time we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of our membership of the Union. Czechs are not disappointed by their presence” in the Community, because “our expectations were realistic. For us, entry into the EU was the outward confirmation of the fact that we had become, once again and with relative rapidity after the fall of Communism, a country of European standards”. “Moreover, we believed that participation in the EU would bring us real and tangible benefits”. Prague has played its part as a member state “and we have therefore been hurt by the repeated and growing attacks we have been facing: attacks based on the unfounded assumption that the Czechs are seeking to realize a new form of integration different from the one they became members of five years ago”. At this point Klaus posed a rhetorical question to MEPs: “Are you really convinced that every time you take a decision, you are deciding something that must be decided here in this chamber and not closer to citizens, i.e. inside the individual European states?”EU institutions, a means not an end. The President of the Czech Republic pointed out that “the methods and forms of European integration offer many possible and legitimate variants” and for this reason urged that the EU institutions be considered not as an end in themselves but as a means to build economic freedom. He also denounced the “democratic gap” that divided the EU institutions from citizens and even raised doubts about the democratic legitimacy of some legislative provisions adopted by the European Parliament itself. At several points during his address the chamber responded with boos and several MEPs left the chamber. “In a Parliament of the past you, Mr. President, wouldn’t have been able to give a speech like this – concluded Poettering, after his intervention -. The EU, on the other hand, is a democracy in which everyone can freely express his or her own opinion. But then, in a democracy, at the end of the day, we need to abide by the decisions of the majority”.