He said current EU practices smacked of communist times when the Soviet Union controlled much of eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and when dissent or even discussions were not tolerated.
"Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition," said Klaus. "We learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom."
He said the 27-nation bloc should concentrate on offering prosperity to Europeans, rather than closer political union, and scrap a stalled EU reform treaty that Irish voters have already rejected.
Klaus said that questioning deeper integration has become an "uncriticizable assumption that there is only one possible and correct future of the European integration."
We have been wrong to encourage the formation of the European Union. It perhaps made some sense during the Cold War when getting Europeans to more effectively defend themselves form the Soviet Union was needed. But now? We risk creating what we defeated at great cost.
I've been worried about how the EU will evolve and my worries are not allayed. The elites of the EU seem determined to get their EU regardless of the obstacles placed by mere voters.
