CZECH PRESIDENT Vaclav Klaus strongly criticised the drive towards further EU integration yesterday and warned that ratifying the Lisbon Treaty would alienate citizens further.
He also questioned the authenticity and impartiality of the European Parliament in a speech to MEPs that was interrupted by boos, cheers and a walkout.
“Here only one single alternative is being promoted and those that dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of the European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives, and therefore no parliamentary opposition,” said Mr Klaus in a reference to the communist regime which ruled then Czechoslovakia before the “velvet revolution” of 1989.
Mr Klaus, whose country holds the EU presidency, later told journalists he did not believe in the “authenticity” of the parliament, which he said contributed to the alienation that EU citizens feel towards the Union. “There is also a great distance, not only in a geographical sense, between citizens and Union representatives, which is much greater than . . . inside member countries,” said Mr Klaus, who accused unelected officials of creating a democratic deficit by the “bureaucratisation of decision-making”.
At this point in the speech some Socialist MEPs walked out of the chamber in protest, prompting a round of cheering from Eurosceptic MEPs.
Mr Klaus told MEPs the Lisbon Treaty would not solve the EU’s democratic deficit. “The proposals to change the current state of affairs – included in the rejected European constitution or in the not much different Lisbon Treaty – would make this defect even worse,” said Mr Klaus, who when asked if he would sign the treaty, replied that “chess players don’t pre-announce their moves”.
Asked if he felt Ireland could vote No again without being relegated to the second tier of the EU, he replied that all member states were equal regardless of their size.
“I hope we are not moving in an Orwellian world where some are more equal than others. So in this respect I really wish for Ireland to freely decide what they want or don’t want,” he said.
Mr Klaus, a liberal economist, criticised the EU’s economic system, describing it as a “permanently strengthening centrally controlled economy”. He also warned that EU leaders had incorrectly interpreted the causes of the economic crisis by blaming the free market. “In reality the crisis was caused by political manipulation . . . The only solution is liberalisation and deregulation.”
History had already proved the current path towards “government masterminding” is a dead end, he added.
Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who did not participate in the walkout, said Mr Klaus was entitled to make his point but described his remarks as a “bizarre fantasy”, which revealed just how slight Eurosceptics’ grasp on political and economic reality was.
Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle also strongly attacked individuals in the parliament for distributing anti-Lisbon-Treaty pamphlets, videos and badges before the Klaus speech. This, she said, was demeaning to the house and the Czech presidency.