Vaclav Klaus Quotes

The European Union has become a prison of peoples. Each of the 28 countries that constitute it has slowly lost its democratic prerogatives to commissions and councils with no popular mandate. Every nation in the union has had to apply laws it did not want for itself.

Complementing the nation-state as it reaches its limits amid globalization: That is what Europe must offer.

The EU project is to create a country called Europe.

The great European dream was to diminish militant nationalism. We would all be happy Europeans together. But we are going to see the old monster of militant nationalism being awoken when people realise how little control their politicians have.

As the political leaders of Europe meet to save the euro and European Union, so should religious leaders.

As Tony Blair has made clear, our fundamental challenge is how to make Europe work better.

The British have never historically thought of themselves as being European. The average Britain has much more in common with an American than with a Frenchman.

Deep down, the ordinary Frenchman doesn't believe that Turks, or Eastern Europeans for that matter, cherish the values he holds most dear. Nor do the French much trust that the Germans and the British have French interests at heart. Given European history -- and given what I see around me -- I can't say I blame them.

United States of Europe

We must build a kind of United States of Europe.

We Europeans will always have two fatherlands. One is Europe, and the other is our own country. It is unified in its diversity—this Europe.

We are not now a country of Africa but a country of Europe.

Our sovereignty has been taken away by the European Court of Justice...Our courts must no longer enforce our national laws. They must enforce Community law...No longer is European law an incoming tide flowing up the estuaries of England. It is now like a tidal wave bringing down our sea walls and flowing inland over our fields and houses.

It is impossible to build Europe on only deregulation ...

The EU represents a highly developed system for mutual interference in each other’s domestic affairs right down to beer and sausages.

The EU aspired to transcend nation-states, but its fatal flaw has been its consistent failure to recognize the persistence of national differences and the importance of addressing threats on its frontiers. One consequence of this oversight has been the rise of political parties that aim to restore national autonomy, often by appealing to far-right, populist, and sometimes xenophobic sentiments

I am strictly against a European superstate.

The European Union is robbing us of our national identities, our nation states.

We don't want a European super state.

What we need is a common goal for more Europe.

Ireland's place north and south is in Europe and leading change in Europe.

Europe is my home, Europe is my continent. Europe is where we live. The European Union is a political bureaucratic organization that took away our identity and our national sovereignty. So, I would get rid of the European Union and be a nation-state again.

Continent-wide nations require continent-wide leaders whenever they are in crisis. The 'idea of Europe,' much like the 'idea of India' was the construction of such continental leaders.

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.

Europe is and will be a Union of States.