France tells Czechs to 'know their place' in the EU

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Nicolas Sarkozy has joined attacks on Czech President V?clav Klaus for refusing to fly the European Union flag from Prague Castle.

The French President has lined up with the Euro-MPs who used a private visit to the Czech head of state's residence, on Dec 5, to upbraid Mr Klaus for not toeing the EU line.

"It was a wound, it was an outrage to see that flags had been taken down from public buildings," said President Sarkozy, speaking in Strasbourg.

Mr Sarkozy went on to criticise President Klaus for having the nerve to fight back, in his own home, against the EU politically correct police in the form of a brigade of hectoring MEPs from fatuously titled "Conference of Presidents".

"The presidents of the political groups, should not be treated in this way, neither should the President of the Parliament, neither should the symbols of Europe," he threatened.

Can it really be right for Mr Sarkozy, or anoyone else, to start telling the Czech head of state what flag to fly from his official residence in Prague Castle?

Should the Queen be flying one from Buckingham Palace?

The Czech President could not believe his ears, see here, when Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Franco-German Green leader and Hans-Gert P?ttering, European Parliament President, pitched up to criticise him for not flying the EU flag and for talking to Irish No campaigners.

"I don't care about your opinions," said Mr Cohn Bendit.

Neither, it appears, does Mr Sarkozy.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/bruno_...ce_tells_czechs_to_know_their_place_in_the_eu
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I thought that, after ten years in the European Parliament, nothing could shock me any more. I was wrong.

I blogged last week about the abominable way in which the leaders of the various EP political groups traduced and insulted the President of the Czech Republic, V?clav Klaus. Brian Crowley, the Fianna F?il leader, ticked him off for talking to the leader of the "No" campaign, Declan Ganley. The Irish, he said, were in favour of the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty. How could he say this? Because his father had spent all his life fighting the British (quite an achievement when the old man was born 13 years after independence).

This was as nothing, though, compared to Danny Cohn-Bendit, the egregious soixante-huitard, who plonked a European flag in front of the President, declared "I am not interested in your opinions," and then proceeded to hector him in an unforgivable tone about the need for closer integration. A stunned Mr Klaus was left muttering that no one had spoken to him in such a tone since the days of Communist Czechoslovakia.

At the opening of this morning's session, I invited the acting Speaker to declare, in the light of these exchanges, that the European Parliament valued all democratic points of view, including those opposed to the Lisbon Treaty, and that it respected the office of the presidency of the Czech Republic. He declined to do so.

A few minutes later, Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, rose to make a similar point. He reminded the Speaker, Hans-Gert P?ttering, that, when 14 MEPs were fined for demanding a referendum in the chamber, the stated reason was that they had misbehaved in the presence of a national leader: Jos? S?crates of Portugal. Yet when Cohn-Bendit and others behaved with outrageous boorishness to another national leader, Hans-Gert not only ostentatiously declined to restrain them, but joined in, upbraiding the Czech leader for daring to mention Communist Czechoslovakia (the complete transcript is available at the splendid EU Referendum blog).

As Nigel sat down, the irritating little socialist leader Martin Schulz, who recently complained that supporters of a referendum resembled Nazis, leapt to his feet. It was scandalous, he said, that the transcript had been published. Such meetings were traditionally secret. In disclosing what had been said, the Czech Republic had not behaved like a democracy.

Got that? To put into practice the EU's much-invoked commitment to democracy is undemocratic! You see how these people think.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel...u_leaders_attack_transparency_as_undemocratic
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Disturbing.
 
No.
 
chaos386 said:
Are there any US state capitols that don't fly the Stars & Stripes?
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The United States is not the EU. The voters of Europe did not decide to become the "United States of Europe", at least not yet.
 
chaos386 said:
Are there any US state capitols that don't fly the Stars & Stripes?
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Last I heard the EU wasn't the United States of Europe. At least not yet.

Edit: Looks like great minds think alike :p.
 
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If I was Klaus I think I would've thrown those idiots out of my country. Like the 'great minds' above said :p, they're not a federation of states. They're still independent and flying or not flying the EU flag should not be an issue.
 
tigger said:
If I was Klaus I think I would've thrown those idiots out of my country. Like the 'great minds' above said :p, they're not a federation of states. They're still independent and flying or not flying the EU flag should not be an issue.
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I see your point, but why be a member of the EU then?
 
Rokovak said:
I see your point, but why be a member of the EU then?
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For poorer countries it means money. For the leading nations it means control.
 
And for us it means being in the Crapper for no good reason. See Ireland and the second go at the second go at the referendum (NB not a typo!). ...

EU does not get an answer it likes it tries again and again.

Well done you Czecs btw - get rid of the Russians, get the French FTL. ...
 
argatoga said:
Last I heard the EU wasn't the United States of Europe. At least not yet.
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The problem is simple, were a majority of countries in western Europe to have a referendum on membership of the EU then the people would vote no.

This somehow doesn't stop those in Brussels thinking the EU is a good idea<_<
 
Most people don't have a hint of a clue what benefits the EU has brought for Europe, they just see one thing that annoys them and want to scrap the whole project. And ESPECIALLY countries like the czech republic and Ireland should be well aware of thhe benefits. Ireland was the poorest country in Western Europe before they joined the EU, now they are the richest. They still get more out of the big EU pot than they put in. Germany has been the opposite since the EU was founded, we always paid. But people here are aware of the economic benefits that a united europe can give us, so you don't hear us whining everyday.

/rant
 
Rokovak said:
I see your point, but why be a member of the EU then?
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Being a member of the EU has a lot more benefits than just being able to fly a flag. Like he said ...
un-dee said:
Most people don't have a hint of a clue what benefits the EU has brought for Europe, they just see one thing that annoys them and want to scrap the whole project. And ESPECIALLY countries like the czech republic and Ireland should be well aware of thhe benefits. Ireland was the poorest country in Western Europe before they joined the EU, now they are the richest. They still get more out of the big EU pot than they put in. Germany has been the opposite since the EU was founded, we always paid. But people here are aware of the economic benefits that a united europe can give us, so you don't hear us whining everyday.

/rant
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un-dee said:
Most people don't have a hint of a clue what benefits the EU has brought for Europe, they just see one thing that annoys them and want to scrap the whole project. And ESPECIALLY countries like the czech republic and Ireland should be well aware of thhe benefits. Ireland was the poorest country in Western Europe before they joined the EU, now they are the richest. They still get more out of the big EU pot than they put in. Germany has been the opposite since the EU was founded, we always paid. But people here are aware of the economic benefits that a united europe can give us, so you don't hear us whining everyday.

/rant
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Germany wanted to be accepted as a non billigerant European country for which they were prepared to pay, plus they could sell loads of BMWs, BOSCH washing machines and other manufacturers.

I'm sorry but from this side of the channel it seems that, everyone else got stuff but we got what? Ans: FA, oh except some decent builders and plumbers, thank you Poland - nice guys btw.
 
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un-dee said:
Most people don't have a hint of a clue what benefits the EU has brought for Europe, they just see one thing that annoys them and want to scrap the whole project.
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Examples?
And ESPECIALLY countries like the czech republic and Ireland should be well aware of thhe benefits. Ireland was the poorest country in Western Europe before they joined the EU, now they are the richest.
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World bank, IMF and CIA says you're wrong.

Anyone want to defend the EU's agricultural policys? No? The bi-weekly moves between Brussels and Strasbourg? No? The lack of transparency and un-democratic nature of the process?
 
I have mixed feelings about the EU. I think it has done good things, but there also is a lot of crap coming out of a much too large administrative machinery. Also, as a member of the EU, I'd love to be asked about certain things that happen there. That's more of a local political problem since we basically are not being asked about anything that happens here. Still, I think that when people were asked, they spoke quite a clear language about what they think.
 
Klaus is an old anti-EU & anti-global warming idiot, who likes to complain about everything. Czech Republic is taking the EU presidency in January, and as his personal protest against the EU he refuses to fly the flag.. yes, EU has many faults (CAP, Brussels-Strassburg issues) but has brought also benefits..
 
He is entitled to fly what ever flag he wants, he is a sovereign leader of a sovereign country.

Who are these Euro idiots but cheats, theives and liars?
 
Cobol74 said:
He is entitled to fly what ever flag he wants, he is a sovereign leader of a sovereign country.

Who are these Euro idiots but cheats, thieves and liars?
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You could have saved a lot of time by just saying politicians...

Anyway, the reforms that led to prosperity in Ireland and Czechoslovakia aren't EU-exclusive notions. Much like NAFTA and CAFTA, the EU created a large, protectionist free trade zone. The problem is that unlike with NAFTA and CAFTA, the EU also creates a government and therefore a de facto reduction of sovereignty. It's especially bad for smaller regions like Scotland: Out of a body of 785 MEPs, seven represent Scotland.

The moral of the story: free trade good, EU accidentally good; EU still mostly bad.
 
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