milos, prague, czech republic

In Prague Thomas Rupp and Géraud de Ville met Milos to ask him some questions about his views on the European Union. Milos is a student, 19 years old and hell of a piano player. In a nice Café in Prague he impressed us with a Ragtime from his most favourite jazz composer, the Czech immigrant to the US Jaroslav Ježek.

Question: What comes into your mind when you think about the EU?
Milos: The first thing that comes to my mind is the possibility to study and work abroad.

Question: Do you know how the EU works?
Milos: No, not much.

Question: If I told you that about 70% of the new laws in Czech Republic come from Brussels, would that be ok for you?
Milos: I can't say whether it's ok or not but it's a necessity to adopt these laws because there has to be some harmonisation.

Question: What about the role of the Czech parliament? The Czech MPs are elected by the people, don't you think that they should be the ones who initiate the major part of the law here.
Milos: I think that our parliament has to have the main word. And concerning the transfer of deciding power to the EU there should be a limit. But even our parliamentarians should not make a decision without knowing the opinion of the people. So some things should be discussed with the people.

Question: Would you like the EU to become a federal state?
Milos: No, no! Because it's too much assimilation. A federal state would push the connections between the member states too far and it would fade the identities.

Question: Do you think that it is important to have a Europe as one entity in the world or do you think it's better to have strong states who cooperate together?
Milos: I think the second, we should cooperate.

Question: What fears do the Czech people have from the EU?
Milos: I think that many people who are against the EU are afraid of losing our national identity. We have the Czech Krone, we have our flag, our anthem and they are afraid that EU memership would destroy these symbols. They are also are afraid of the power of other countries surrounding us like Germany and the possibility of assimilation. I think the answer to this question also depends on the age of the people. Many old people are afraid of new things and for them such a huge project like the EU is a big change. Young people see it more likely as a chance. I believe in the end it's up to the Czech people to decide if they want to stay Czech. - I'm not too much into it but I would definitely not agree with stuff like a common anthem,...

Question: According to you, what should the EU focus on?
Milos: I'm interested in music and I believe that nowadays the whole world is threatened by globalisation. The originality of cultures is fading away. I would like the EU to put incentives and protection of the European cultures. The cultural education is fading.

Question: Why the EU should deal with this?
Milos: The EU should support arts in the member states by providing money. It should support the countries that want to improve the arts. But the EU should not interfere in the way how it is done by the countries.

Question: What about a European army?
Milos: I would agree with this because with a common army we could combine the skills among them e.g. between the Czech and German army. If we put them together I think it solves different problems. It's a good idea to have a European army because every country has it's specialists.

Question: But it's quite clear that if you have one common army, one currency, laws which come in majority from Brussels then you ARE a state, de facto.
Milos: There is a border line: Above it there are the United States of Europe and below it everyone could benefit from it. I don't think having an army would make us cross that border line.

Question:You seem to be quite optimistic about the EU development, but at the same time you think that there should be limits. How do we know where these limits are?
Milos: We never know! One day we will wake up and see that we crossed that line.

Question: Do you think this is worth the adventure? Do you think the whole development is too fast?
Milos: You cannot stop that development. Things are developping increasingly fast.
Question: What do you mean that you cannot do anything about it? We don't have any control anymore?
Milos: Heads of States do have some control but the dynamics of the worldwide development is increasing, people are raising their life-standards. Whatever you would like to do, you are pushed by society to join this game of raising that standard. If you would prefer to go in another direction it gets even harder because it is more and more difficult to develop against the mainstream. So in the end, rising the life standard has definitely a negative impact on my freedom of choice?

Question: Do you think there should be more information about how the European institutional system (as it has a big impact on our life but we don't know how it even works)?
Milos: I agree that people are not informed. The second point is that most of the people don't care. If you touch their money they will care. The third point is that most of the people, when they are informed, they won't understand.

Question: As you said: if you touch the people's money, they will care. Do you think that setting up a European tax would raise the people's interest in the EU or it would only be another step towards a United States of Europe structure.
Milos: It would be negative because if Brussels starts asking money from the people it will feed the euroskeptical debates. Some other people will at least try to find information to understand why they have to pay.

Question: But how could this be improved?
Milos: With education. You have to bring the information actively to the people through education. Young people are not interested to find out for themselves. At least there should be some basic education in school. And here has to be a greater influence of English, German and French language in the European eductaion.

Question: Was there a big debate about Czech EU accession?
Milos: Before the the accession referendum there was a big rush. A lot of articles and discussions were published in the media. They didn't point out anything negative. They were saying: « Say yes to the EU ». There were some little demonstrations against the EU but very few.

Question: What about the connections between the Czech people and their politicians?
Milos: I don't know it too much but I don't trust the politicians.

Question: Is the EU an example of democracy or does it remind you to the Communist system - because of its centralized, bureaucratic aspects?
Milos: It is definitely too bureacratic, but for me it's a symbol of democracy