Vaclav Klaus Quotes

With the EU taking in ten more countries and adopting a new Constitution, organisations need more than ever intelligent professional help in engaging with the EU institutions.

Limitless enlargement of Europe means the death of political Europe.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the occupation of Japan and Germany was the relatively free hand the occupation forces enjoyed in imposing policy on the conquered country. This was especially dramatic in the case of Japan. There, the occupying forces wrote a new constitution for the country and essentially handed it down to the occupied with little local consultation in ways that are quite astonishing today for their radicalness and their dictatorial quality. In Germany the occupying forces had the luxury of postponing national elections for three years giving them precious time to purge the old guard and reestablish order before putting the new political system to the test.

We have to ask ourselves, is it really right that the E.U. should just continue to expand, conferring upon all new member states all the rights of membership?

You can't deepen the European Union against the wishes of the European countries.

We need to move forward, from the common currency to the banking union to a common financial policy and, in the middle-term, to a common foreign and security policy. That will take time, because we need to figure out how to deal with those countries that don't always want a more tightly integrated European Union.

The bureaucratic method of building an integrated Europe has exhausted its potential.

We have to give ourselves a constitution which marks the birth of Europe as a political entity.

We are involved in a constitution-building process of historic importance. The Convention should mark a new stage in European integration.

We [European countries] probably need to move forward together, each at their own speed. The faster ones, that could be the countries in the euro zone. The others would be those who are interested in the continued development of the common market, but reject the idea of an ever stronger political integration.

If Turkey become a member of the EU, of course Turks would lose a part of this identity, just as Europe would lose a part of its own. It would also be a different Europe then. Accepting Turkey into the EU is an ambitious political endeavor of historical proportions. Europe would become a strong, multi-religious unit.

Look at the European Parliament. There are a lot of people who are looking for simplistic solutions, for - who are sort of preaching policies of - well, very unfriendly policies.

The EU project is to create a country called Europe.

The euro is a great achievement. It's a symbolic achievement. But, the European constitution was a missed opportunity.

Our task is nothing less than the creation of a new constitutional order for a new united Europe.

Turkey will "inevitably" join the EU in our lifetime unless we vote to leave.

...within ten years 80% of our economic legislation, perhaps even fiscal and social as well' would come from the EU.

We need to recognize that part our political problem is that we do not participate effectively, that we suffer from a kind of mental slumber.

Europe was initially supposed to be primarily a political project! The EU never would have come about had it been up to experts or diplomats. It was created by people who had learned from the drama of our collective history. I am proposing a new beginning, not one in which it is first deliberated ad infinitum what instruments one needs, but one that follows from the goals we want to achieve.

The European Union that emerges from the Eurozone crisis is going to be a very different body. It will be transformed perhaps beyond recognition by the measures needed to save the Eurozone.

In order to solve the climate crisis, we need to solve the democracy crisis.

My main concern is the political dimension of European integration. This is one of the most important issues of all, as far as I'm concerned. It has to do with our past, with our sensitivity, perhaps even our hypersensitivity in this regard.

Policy is largely set by economic elites and organized groups representing business interests with little concern for public attitudes or public safety, as long as the public remains passive and obedient.

I think we don't need some people in Brussels trying to run countries that are some distance apart, who don't speak the same language, don't eat the same food. There's a bit of difference between, Holland, if you like, and Italy.

The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide.