Vaclav Klaus Quotes

I live in Europe and care about democracy and sovereignty of nation states there.

Any people has a right to self-determination, and now in Europe the process of diluting national sovereignty in the framework of a united Europe is more accepted.

By all means, let's have free trade and no trade barriers and a common market. But where did it all suddenly become about our own economic and political destiny being surrendered to Brussels with agendas that arguably have very little to do with the interests of the British people and British voters?

Brussels has become inefficient and very bureaucratic, which makes it slow to do things. The concept of the United States of Europe will never work.

People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to. They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is. Put simply, many ask 'why can't we just have what we voted to join - a common market?'

Limitless enlargement of Europe means the death of political Europe.

The EU Constitution sets a path towards the elimination of nation states and the emergence of a European state in the strictest sense of the word. I'm definitely opposed to it… The EU isn't a loving family of European nations where everyone altruistically cares for everyone else. Various interests clash on various issues, and all kinds of coalitions are struck to push through specific solutions

We should not replicate the situation where one country is in a situation to hijack the rest of Europe because they organize a referendum.

I am strictly against a European superstate.

We don't want a European super state.

It's not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe.

'Ever closer union' is one of the totemically controversial phrases in the European Union's Treaties. It seems to give weight to the view that the scheme is designed to end in a single state and that those who agreed the texts have long know this, even if they have been unwilling to admit it to the British people.

In the long run, Europe will certainly move toward unification. But it will be a process of push and pull, and there will be resistance.

I believe that the E.U. should be the union of nation states and that all deepening of ties between the member states cannot go beyond the limits of democracy.

The E.U., its institutions, structure and ways of working are an anachronism.

We have more and more rules coming out of Europe telling us what to do, and I think people are getting a bit fed up with it. This was supposed to be a common market. I don't remember them ever saying we would be governed by Brussels and become a satellite of Europe.

Why am I such a Euro-enthusiast? Because I knew it was an anchor of democracy.

I would like a UK fully engaged in Europe, but I can't decide in place of the British. I see that for the moment they want to be more in retreat.

Perhaps our own opposition to even the level of European integration we have now, let alone any more, is well known.

Europe is a collection of free countries.

After choosing monetary union, further political union and workable governance in Europe was always going to be necessary.

It's not too late to stop the Lisbon Treaty.

If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.

Before, Europe was about treaties, laws and our sovereign right to govern ourselves. Now, it's about everyday lives.

'Federalism', in the context of political and media usage in Britain, has come to mean the creation and imposition of a European superstate, one centralised in Brussels.