Ilves: Western Europe Still Arrogant Towards East
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told Austrian newspaper Die Presse in an interview last week that the EU is not so much divided into North and South as it is into East and West because of the latter regions' arrogant attitude.
Ilves said that some western region EU member states still hold an arrogant attitude towards the supposedly primitive and ignorant eastern bloc. It is quite frustrating to be following the rules of the game and later find out that those that have treated you disparagingly infringe the rules instead, said Ilves.
According to the head of state, an example could be drawn from the EU agricultural policies, which despite being based on a joint internal market, provide three times more subsides to the so-called Old-Europe nations than to, for instance, the Baltic states.
Ilves said, however, that international media coverage of Eastern European countries has been positive in the light of the European sovereign debt crisis. According to him, this is because the media prefers to portray out-of-the-ordinary phenomenon and responsibility in financial matters currently qualifies as such.
Ingrid Teesalu