Center-right think tank honors Dutch journalist

Opponents of bureaucracy and government intervention in markets met Oct. 25 to recognize this year's winner of the Czech Anti-Bureaucratic Award.

Dutch journalist and MEP Derk-Jan Eppink took the prize for his leadership in the European Conservative and Reform parliamentary group, and for penning two books highly critical of EU institutions, arguing they have a negative impact on businesses and national sovereignty.

The award, which is conferred every year by center-right think tank eStat.cz, recognizes individuals and groups who work to combat what the organization sees as unnecessarily complicated and economically damaging bureaucratic processes. Past winners include President Václav Klaus and former Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, both members of the center-right Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which also counts as members many of those involved with eStat.cz.

The award has also been given collectively to the people of Ireland for their rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in the 2008 referendum.

"What impressed me personally was [Eppink's] forecast for the EU and for Europe generally," said Edvard Kožušník, project manager for eStat.cz and Czech MEP from the ODS. "Basically, he says we're in a really bad way."

In his latest book, Bonfire of Bureaucracy in Europe, Eppink lists "seven deadly sins" committed by European bodies, a metaphor for what he sees as misguided thinking that will be detrimental to the region's economy. These "sins" include thinking European taxes will bring citizens closer together, the EU viewing itself as a global player with good intentions and the idea that "more Europe" is the solution to every problem.

"The EU produces many rules that distort a level playing field and distort competition," said Eppink, citing the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as an example. The CAP administers agricultural subsidies amounting to more than 30 percent of the EU's entire annual budget, and many view the system as protectionist.

Eppink has spent more than a decade involved in EU politics and says that though he has always been impressed by the quality of European Commission staff, the institution desperately needs reform and has succumbed to a kind of group think that makes rational discussions impossible.

"To many people, [the European Commission] has the mystery of the Vatican," Eppink said. "You regard it as a monolithic block, which on closer inspection is not true."

Eppink writes from his experiences in Brussels and Strasbourg - where, before being elected MEP, he served as an assistant MEP - and says he was able to see the European Commission from the inside out and experience its "ways of working and sometimes not working."

One of the biggest flaws Eppink finds with the system is what he describes as poor enforcement of rules that foster free markets.

"The lax application of rules is affecting free markets, like the supervision of the eurozone, which allowed Greece to spend at the expense of others thanks to the low interest rates and low bond prices," he said, adding that overzealous environmental regulation on the part of the EU has been equally detrimental to the region's economy by running business out of Europe.

Kožušník, whose organization eStat.cz supports streamlining government processes to make them more efficient and less costly, as well as limiting the influence of government over the commercial sphere, sees much of European law and policy as an unwelcome infringement on the Czech Republic's economic future.

"From the point of view of legislation, every year there are more and more impacts on the Czech Republic from the European Parliament," Kožušník said. "The Czech Republic is more and more directed by Brussels, and that's where the power comes from."

Emily Thompson can be reached at
ethompson@praguepost.com