EU matters interview than one step ahead, start. Social protectionism is a mutual distortion of the internal market in transport services. I expect that the Court of Justice of the EU will confirm this assertion. I see the immaturity of MiLog in the unilateral adoption of the Law by German government without considering its impact on neighbouring countries. We must respect the principles on which the internal market stands, i.e. four freedoms. Therefore, I hope that some of the carriers concerned by this measure will sue Germany and German court issues a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the EU. I am sure there will be a company which will have enough courage to do so. First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans declared he is in favour of abolition of trialogues. According to him, they are not democratic as they allow participation of neither the highest political level nor the stakeholders. What is your opinion on that? Trialogues serve as a tool for reaching a compromise between the EU co-legislators - the Council and the Parliament. As such, they are useful and fulfill the function they were established for. I do not see anything harmful and undemocratic in that. The European Parliament, whose members were elected in direct elections, plays the democratic element in this case. The European Union is negotiating an ambitious trade and investment agreement with the US, the so-called TTIP, and the negotiation concerns all the committees across the EP. Is the EU able to reach an agreement in the area of regulations and defend our European standards well enough? As I have been informed by the negotiators, there is a will not to harmonize the regulation of both sides, but to strengthen mutual recognition. This is the right way that allows preservation of EU standards. Of course, this principle can exclude areas of European public interest in order to prevent infiltration of American standards through the recognition, which we do not want. Typical areas that might be excluded are GMOs. I think it is necessary to treat various forms of dumping. An important area for the Czech Republic is certainly the standardization in the automotive industry. TTIP can allow Czech manufacturers of particular components to gain access to the production of Pavel Svoboda (born 9 April 1962) is a Czech politician and lawyer. Svoboda was born in Prague and studied Law Faculty at Charles University. He also has D.E.A. degree from Université Sciences Sociales in Toulouse. From 2007 to 2009, Svoboda was an Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe. From 23 January 2009 to 8 May 2009, he was minister without portfolio and chairman of the Government’s Legislative Council. In May 2014 he was elected Member of the European Parliament for KDU-ČSL, part of European Peoples Party. Subsequently he was elected Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI).]
automotive components in the US. Therefore, TTIP is favourable for the Czech Republic.
Photo: Archive of MEP Svoboda
In this context I would like to ask you, how can the EU fight against Russian propaganda against TTIP? At the moment, the EU plans to support media in the EU and non-EU countries in Eastern Europe. First, we have to exclude the part of the propaganda that is deaf to rational arguments. As for TTIP opponents who use common sense, we have to give the right arguments and data on the table. We have to campaign TTIP as a source of new jobs as it will bring new investors to Europe. Since TTIP has been negotiated by the EU, we have to campaign it from EU level and express the pan-European support. Russian campaigns against TTIP are not so much about TTIP as such, but rather about a fear from closer relation of the two important entities that share the same liberal democratic values. You are also active regarding the abolition of summer time. Why is it so important to you? It is important for my electorate. During the electoral campaign, I have heard this issue quite often. This is a reason why I have organized a public hearing on summer time in the European Parliament. I wanted to take the stock of scientific research on this issue. I expect that this dialogue will involve the European Commission and further impact study will be undertaken followed by legislative actions. In your election program, you stated that you plan to increase the visibility of Christian Democracy in the European Parliament. This topic is quite timely. But is the current EU able to defend its values because of its often exaggerated political correctness? Value is a crucial idea for which a person is willing to sacrifice something. And there begins
Photo: Alexandra Alvarová
the first problem: for what are we, the slackened off Europeans ready to sacrifice something? What’s more, and you are right in that, we falsely confuse this comfort with political correctness. The political correctness prevents us from name rightly the problems and ill-named problems cannot be correctly solved, because we bury our heads in the sand when facing them. In many European countries this can be documented on problems with inadaptable citizens. The same applies to our security: we bury our heads in the sand when facing the fact that security is a prerequisite for prosperity, not just some luxurious charm that you buy after everything else is paid. If we were really aware of the security value, then it would be primarily reflected in the implementation of budgetary commitments in defence within NATO, which we do not fulfil. So yes, we are in the process of committing mass suicide because of questionable political correctness and the apparent obviousness of values such as security, freedom and democracy. In doing so, the treatment is essentially simple: do not be afraid to use common sense. By Alena Mastantuono ■
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