Verheugen accused of meddling by former Czech PM

Date: 27/09/01

By David Cronin

FORMER Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus has accused enlargement chief Günter Verheugen of a "tragic misuse of his position", after Verheugen warned that the country's hope of joining the Union swiftly would take a setback if his right-leaning Civic Democrats win next year's general election.

In an interview with European Voice, Klaus said the message - reportedly delivered after Verheugen met current Czech premier Milos Zeman earlier this year - indicated he was "fully on the other side of the ideological divide" from him.

But he ruled out complaining about the remarks to Verheugen's face, when the pair held talks in Brussels last week. "Mr Verheugen was fighting on the side of his Social Democrat friend, Mr Zeman," he added. "He was not expressing, I suppose, the views of the European Commission. It is human to make such mistakes and it is human to accept them as mistakes."

Prime Minister from 1992 to 1997, Klaus has used his present role as Chamber of Deputies chairman to snipe at both Zeman and the EU. He rejects, though, the "simplistic label" of eurosceptic, preferring to be called a "euro-realist".

As the man who signed the original Czech application for EU membership, he remains in favour of joining, even if a recent opinion poll found that just 40% of his compatriots share that view. But he has capitalised on the perception that Zeman's government is prepared to sacrifice too much during the enlargement negotiations, especially the fear it will soon accept that Czech workers will not automatically be entitled to travel freely to other EU states. Some pundits predict his party could gain power after the election scheduled for mid-2002.

He contends that European integration is entering its "Janus phase" - an allusion to the two-faced Roman deity.

One face of this process brings advancements he had been "dreaming of for decades" under the yoke of communism - the opening up or markets and the eventual free movement of people.

It is the other face which repels him: the harmonisation of laws and the "bureaucratisation of human life".

"I very clearly see both sides of this Janus phase," he said. "And I cannot accept it when some people say there are contradictions in my ideas."

In a speech delivered during his visit, Klaus said that his long-term wish is for the Czech Republic to remain "a self-governing nation within the European Union".

"Pro-European activists claim to be the exclusive owners of truth," he said. "They dismiss all objections to their struggle for supranationalism and ever closer union as undemocratic, nationalistic and reactionary and denounce all those who disagree with them as potential [autocratic Belarussian leader] Lukashenkos and Milosevics."

Klaus has been especially scathing about the euro, arguing that the single currency is more based on political objectives than sound economics. "I am one who permanently raises questions and who tries to argue with people who speak about the benefits only. I am sure that EMU [European monetary union] will be a very costly process."

Former Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus has accused enlargement chief Günter Verheugen of a 'tragic misuse of his position', after Verheugen warned that the country's hope of joining the Union swiftly would take a setback if his right-leaning Civic Democrats win the 2002 general election.