Yle | 20 years of membership, yet the Czechs are reticent

For 20 years, the Czechs have benefited billions of euros from EU membership, yet they are more reticent about the Union than others. Where does this opposition come from? How do the Czechs see the EU and their role in it? Comments Vít Havelka, Senior Research Fellow at EUROPEUM Institute for the Finnish public radio and TV.

"Czechs tend to be sceptical and to complain a lot. So, if you ask them: Are you satisfied with something?, even when it comes to national institutions or their life, they will simply start complaining. In a way, it is part of our culture. And if you ask whether we benefited from the membership that is a completely different question."

You can read the whole article in Finnish and watch the interview in English here.

Vít Havelka
Senior Research Fellow

Expertise: EU institutional relations with member states, europeisation, transformation role of EU