No. 8

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Behind the velvet curtain

18 December 2003

Politics

RiTo No. 8, 2003

  • Igor Gräzin

    Member of the Riigikogu, Estonian Reform Party

There is no point in discussing whether joining the EU is good or bad for Estonia, since the question of whether or not to join has been answered. But there is plenty of reason to discuss what Estonia must be like as an EU member.

State-building and constitutional law is an area in which the European Union is still very young and politically inexperienced. Our actions in the future taken to preserve Estonian independence – if this is what we want – is as follows. Initially: very exacting political and juridical activity that allows us to identify and block any sort of attempt to push the EU in a federalist centralist direction. The other very important strategic guarantee is preserving Estonia’s liberal market economy, which would save us from being excessively subordinated to the EU, which by its nature is an institution based on planned economy. And third – more of a tactical-political than strategic mode of action – preserving the alliance between the Anglo-American military political bloc and other states in the New Europe. Only this can counterbalance the increasingly stronger union between the European Union and Russia, and the EU’s colonial ambitions, with France as the flagship and a currently economically recessed Germany flailing in its wake.

Full article in Estonian

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