Czech president attacks authenticity of EU parliament

Czech president Václav Klaus has launched a blistering attack on the EU and said that the parliament "lacks authenticity".

Klaus was speaking at a news conference after getting a mixed reaction for his address to the mini-plenary in Brussels on Thursday.

He made a twin-pronged attack on parliament, the EU's only directly elected institution, and its centre-right president Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Klaus told journalists that parliament lacked authenticity and questioned whether it "truly" represented EU citizens.

"Many of the competences of the European parliament - and the EU- must be returned to national member states," he said.

The acid test, he argued, would be the European elections in June, adding, "This is a problem. The fact is that fewer and fewer people have voted in these elections and, once again, this will be an issue this year."

This was a direct reference to the fact that since the first direct elections in 1979, voter participation in the election has fallen to below 30 per cent in countries like the UK.

In his speech to parliament, Klaus questioned whether decision-making in Brussels was always the best approach.

He asked MEPs, "are you really convinced that every time you take a vote you are deciding something that must be decided here in this chamber and not closer to the citizens, that is, inside the individual European states?"

At the press conference, he also criticised Pöttering's assertion that parliament should be at the forefront of efforts to address to the current economic meltdown.

Klaus said, "I really do not understand him saying that parliament is somehow best placed to fight protectionism in Europe."

Instead, he called for liberalisation and deregulation of the European economy as the way out of the recession.

Klaus also distanced his country from the eurozone, saying, "The Czech Republic would be much worse off being inside the eurozone than outside."

Turning to his well-publicised criticism of further EU expansion, he insisted that while smaller member states such as the Czech Republic were generally better off in the EU this should not discourage criticism.

"We do not want to return to those times when there was only one 'correct' view of the EU," he said.

He argued that the EU should be big enough to take on board "alternative" views, notably the "ideals, views and visions" on Europe's future.

On the stalled Lisbon treaty and attempts by the anti-treaty party Libertas to gain a foothold in European politics, Klaus said, "I am not sure what else they [Libertas] stand for but, as is well known, I fully support their opposition to deepening European political integration."

The Irish are still to ratify the treaty and Klaus insisted this should be left "entirely" to them.

Earlier this week, the Czech Republic ended its status as the only EU country not to have begun work on ratifying the treaty reforming the EU when the lower house of parliament voted to approve the document.

He said the decision by some MEPs to leave the chamber during his speech was a "surprise" but added that he had "enjoyed the debate very much".

"The worst possible thing would have been for me to have been met by total silence."

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