Original text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European Integration process has brought us many benefits.<\/strong> It helped us to develop social and economic ties across most of the European continent. It helped us to create opportunities. It helped us to travel more freely. And many other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the\nintegration process, which is today called the European Union (or the EU),<\/strong> is not what it used to be in the\npast. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, the process has significantly evolved.\nIt used to be a peace project which was very successful in the era after the\nSecond World War, also because of its economic underpinnings. The common budget\nof European Economic Community (which was the name of the project at that time)\nused to be financed exclusively by direct financial contributions from the\nmember states. At the same time, many areas were kept to be a strictly national\nmatter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation now is\ndrastically different<\/strong>,\nthe EU bureaucrats have taken the opportunity to make an excessive number of\nregulations and have radically expanded the areas in which the EU is\nparticipating or governing I should say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, I argue that\nmore integration is not better, in this case. I will dedicate most of my speech\nto the no. 1 problem of the European integration which is the heterogeneity\nbetween the countries.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to keep in mind that the EU now consists of 28\ncountries. And more countries with different cultures, opinions, values, and\npreferences mean that it is more difficult to find a compromise. Therefore,\nfrom a definition, it is not viable to keep deepening the integration process.\nIt would work only under the assumptions of homogeneity of these factors, which\nis not the case. That\u2019s why the situation of the United States of America is\nnot applicable to the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think that let\u2019s\nsay a lifestyle of people from the Southern countries of the EU such as Greece,\nPortugal, or Spain is the same as a lifestyle of people from the Northern\ncountries such as Sweden, Denmark, or Finland?<\/strong> Of course, it is not. <\/strong>Some of you probably swim a lot, while the latter group of people\nmay enjoy skiing or other similar activities more. Simply, because there are\ndifferent environments. And this is interconnected with everything \u2013 with\nsocial dimensions, with economic dimensions, with culture, values and so on.\nWhen such notable dissimilarities exist, it is, logically, more difficult to\nfind a compromise when dealing with complex issues on a supra-national level.\nThis is the case of the European Union. As a result, the EU has been paralysed\nwhen trying to manage complicated issues such as fiscal policy or migration\npolicy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For all human history,\nthere have been significant differences between various groups of people<\/strong>. Later on, we have formed national\nstates. And the reason was this: it is more efficient when the world is\nfragmented. And I know that probably today it sounds awful, but it is still the\ncase and it always will be the case. It is human nature. At least to some\nextent. That is why national sovereignty is so important. Every state is\npursuing its own goals, even though sometimes they are trying to look like they\ndo not do this. And the same goes for every individual by the way. Of course,\nwe do not mean to harm other people, but I would say for most people, their\ninterests mean more for them than the interests of others. We, economists,\nwould argue that selfishness is great because it promotes efficiency. This is\nabsolutely true, but it is not applicable in the situation of trying to find a political\ncompromise when the actors do not have the same voting power. This is one of\nthe paramount reasons why more integration is not always better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what did the members\nof the European integration process do? In the 1990s, they were very aware of\nthe fact that socialism has ended and that more members states will take part\nin the integration process in the future.<\/strong> I am referring to the 1989 fall of Communism or\nsocialism. This is also the case of the Czech Republic. Very soon, beginning\nwith the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the older and more developed countries decided\nthat they do not want to lose influence over the integration process, and they\nbegan to reform it. After the last almost constitutional treaty \u2013 The Lisbon\nTreaty \u2013 it is very clear that the older and bigger states, mostly Germany and\nFrance have the most control and power over the integration process. The\nEuropean bureaucrats use the argument that voting needs to be efficient, so larger\nand more developed countries have a significant advantage. As a result, they\nhave suppressed many aspects of sovereignty and the whole process began to move\naway from its initial purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, let me provide you\nwith two examples of the fact that more of something does not always mean that\nit is better.<\/strong> One is\nfrom real life and has nothing to do with economics. While the second one is directly\nconnected to the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the first example is considering nutrition<\/strong>. It is said that \u201cThe dose makes the poison\u201c, or in other words: everything is toxic in unreasonable quantities. This is also the case of one of the most vital life elements, which is water \u2013 H2<\/sub>O. If you drank excessive amounts of water, you would die. The symptoms of water poisoning include headaches, tiredness, sweating, vomiting, stiffness, convulsions, disorientation\u2026. and a brain swelling in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second example is the\ncase of freedom vs. central planning<\/strong>. The humankind is experiencing endless circles or\nfluctuations of levels of freedom in a society. Some periods were freer than\nothers. In my opinion, one of the reasons which apply to the modern era is that\na constant effort to make society and economy work better, which creates a\nvicious circle. Only na\u00efve people think that we can tweak and change basic\nfundamental systems of society \u2013 democracy and capitalism. Or the people do not\nrealise that it is being challenged. So, what is happening is that we are\ngradually losing more and more personal freedom as the governments or the\nEuropean Union, is trying to manage more and more things. We already know that\nthis is not possible, as all the communist or socialist experiments went\nterribly wrong. The Czech Republic is a prime example of it. The only cure was to\nlet people be free and manage most of the things by themselves. It may be harsh\nbut it is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a saying that democracy is not perfect. Capitalism is not perfect either. But it does not mean that we should replace it.<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Our society still draws from its capitalist fundamentals \u2013 the free markets, the freedom of speech of choice etc. However nowadays it is being significantly weakened and the European Union, unfortunately, plays a prominent role in the process. When it comes to smaller EU member states, even democratic processes are being gradually suppressed. We are speaking about the so-called democratic deficit in the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we do not wake up, the EU countries and its people (we) will suffer<\/strong>. History tells us that even great and mighty entities such as the Roman Empire will fall if they are not able to adapt to constantly changing circumstances and manage its society properly. The EU should go back to its economic roots, stick with them, and not try to create the so-called United States of Europe.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" P\u016fvodn\u00ed anglick\u00fd text: The European Integration process has brought us many benefits. 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