I Never Intended To Be A Politician

Czech Republic Is An Important Part Of Central Europe. It's Clear That We Must Participate In European Integration. I Am Convinced That The Czech Republic - Or, In The Past, Czechoslovakia - Would Have Been One Of The Founding Members Of The Eu If It Hadn't Been For The Communist Takeover In 1948.

I Also Helped Write The Five-page Statement Of Principles That Civic Forum Issued In Late November. That Was The First Public Expression Of What The New Government Wanted To Do.

And Finally, There Is Another Danger: The Emergence Of Nonideological But Very Aggressive 'isms,' Which Are Really Quite New. Let Me At Least Name Them: We All Care About Human Rights, But I Am Afraid Of 'human Rightism.' We All Want To Have A Healthy Environment, But I See The Danger In Environmentalism. To Put It Politically Correctly, I Admire The Second Gender, But I Fear Feminism. We All Are Enriched By Other Cultures, But Not By Multiculturalism. I Am Aware Of The Importance Of Voluntary Associations, But I Fear Ngoism.

Eu Expansion Is, Unfortunately, Continuing Without A Constitution, As A Gradual Process Of Standardization - And That's Far More Dangerous. It Is Very Difficult To Slow Down This Process, Which Is Being Pushed Forward Without Significant Public Participation.

The Development Of European Integration Can Be Divided Into Two Phases. The First Era Ended With The Maastricht Treaty. It Was A Liberalization Phase, With The Main Goal Of European Integration At The Time Being The Removal Of Various Barriers And Borders In Europe. The Second Phase Is A Homogenization Or Standardization Phase, One That Involves Regulation From The Top And Growing Control Over Our Lives. This No Longer Has Anything To Do With Freedom And Democracy.