The Czech President Václav Klaus said there is "a great distance (not only in a geographical sense) between citizens and Union representatives, which is much greater than inside the Member countries. This distance is often described as the democratic deficit, the loss of democratic accountability." According to Mr Klaus the Lisbon Treaty would worsen the EU's democratic deficit. He carried on saying "Since there is no European demos – and no European nation – this defect cannot be solved by strengthening the role of the European Parliament either."
Unsurprisingly, several MEPs did not like to hear the true and walked out of the Chamber. Read the full speech here.
