Klaus Analyzes European Union

Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus delivered both a typically blunt analysis of European Union (EU) affairs as well as a slightly optimistic vision for the future in a speech before students and faculty yesterday at Harvard’s Center for European Studies.

Klaus, who was in office in May 2004 when the Czech Republic achieved EU membership, has quickly become one of the most outspoken critics of the creation of a European super-nation that he believes the EU is facilitating.

In his speech yesterday, Klaus said he believes that EU member states have “little residual sovereignty,” and that without major structural changes to the EU the “democratic deficit” in Europe will only grow.

He took the opportunity to address what he believes to be some of the central misconceptions surrounding the EU.

Klaus was especially outspoken on the claims that the Czech Republic could not survive and flourish without the EU. He said that such a view could threaten both individual state sovereignty and national pride.

“My basic disagreement is with the implicitly held belief...that everything that has happened since 1957 is the result of the EU,” he said.

“The building of our country was not done by the EU, it was done by ourselves,” Klaus added.

Klaus also challenged the idea that the growth and unification of the EU would benefit member states, since he argued that it would only decrease members’ autonomy.

He commented that debate, and consequently progress, is nearly impossible in Europe since it is “difficult to have a free discussion” and since contrary voices are “hardly hear-able.” Furthermore, Klaus reiterated that the EU currently creates the “wretched effect” of groups of member states blindly following the actions of one state, an effect that he said is even further lessening the democracy of each individual member state.

When asked by an audience member to voice his opinion on the pending admission of Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Turkey into the EU, he stated that he supports their admission. Klaus used the blackboard to demonstrate his logic, drawing a graph indicating that the more member states that join, the shallower their integration will be.

Klaus also said he that he supports the Czech Republic’s membership despite his opposition to many of the EU practices. Klaus’s justification for Czech membership lies in the idea that post-Communist countries need EU acceptance to achieve some modicum of “international recognition” and legitimacy.

He also expressed optimism that the EU is not beyond repair, adding that the “form of EU integration is changeable, and changeable for the better.”

The visit, which attracted a standing room only crowd in Busch Hall’s lower-level conference room, was co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.