After all, the president has seemingly made it his mission to badmouth the EU at every opportunity, from Prague to Los Angeles.

He likes to say membership in the EU is simply not all it's cracked up to be.

It would be hard for Czechs to disagree.

Yes, the country has had access to roughly 80 billion Kč ($3.6 billion) in EU funds since joining in 2004, and numerous sectors of the country's economy have benefited greatly from EU subsidies.

But more than two years later, much of the EU's labor market is still closed to Czechs and the citizens of the nine other new member states. The borders of these countries continue to have passport checkpoints, while travel from, say, Portugal through Spain and France is as easy as driving Interstate 90 west from Boston to Seattle.

Perhaps worst of all, not even a permanent seat at the same austere table as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium is enough to allow the new states' citizens the chance to travel to the United States without a visa — a right citizens from the EU's original 15 member states enjoy.

What perks really come with membership in this club? If you're a Czech or a Lithuanian, it's tough to say.

So it was somewhat of a surprise to see Klaus hoisting beers with the presidents of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary Sept. 16 at the end of a two-day summit outside Prague at which the four countries vowed to form a united front with the Baltic states and push for equal treatment within the EU. Joining forces, this bloc of seven countries is demanding that both Brussels and Washington treat their citizens like those of their Western neighbors.

This was a welcome and important development, and it is encouraging to see the outrage Czech politicians showed at the European Commission's announcement Sept. 11 that the Schengen zone — which allows passport-free travel over national borders — would not extend to include the newest member states anytime soon. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek hinted at discrimination. New Foreign Affairs Minister Alexandr Vondra created rather a scene in Berlin, visiting his German counterpart.

Even the casual student of EU affairs knows that the 10 newest members, most of whom hail from the former communist Eastern bloc, do not enjoy remotely the same status as the West, and Brussels has done little to give the concerns of these countries a full airing.

This must change. At the same time, outrage must spawn a resolve in politicians from these new member states to get their houses in order. Want respect? Earn it.

It is hard to cry foul when your deficit (the Czech Republic), unemployment (Poland) and human rights records (Latvia's treatment of ethnic Russians, Slovakia's treatment of Roma) are outside EU norms.

New EU members want equal treatment in Brussels. Well, stop sliding on commitments to euro adoption.

Klaus has probably said too much to ever be taken seriously on future European questions. But for others, like Polish President Lech Kaczynski, it's not too late.