The Shapiro Campus Center was buzzing with bodyguards and business suits on Friday as the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, denounced the current state of the European Union before a crowd that had overflowed from the building's theater into its atrium."As a new country, I'm not afraid of some economic problems," the president told the crowd. "My ultimate fear is freedom, and I feel it is endangered in Europe these days."

The president, brought to campus by the International Business School, criticized the E.U. for diminishing the individual power of its member countries. The Czech Republic joined the E.U. in May 2004.

"Seventy-five percent of our legislation comes to us from above. Public participation in Europe is impossible by definition. If you shift decision-making from the state to the superpower you move much further from individual citizens."

He declared that the attempts to bring all of Europe together are based on false assumptions. Centralization is not necessary, and big is not necessarily beautiful, he said.

"People say we must be big and unified because our competition is big. I disagree. There is not economic competition between the U.S., the E.U. and Asia. There is competition between Company A and Company B. Countries are not economic agents."

But Klaus offered a glimmer of optimism in the possibility for future changes to the E.U.'s policies.

"I should probably say that the E.U. is here to stay, that the only hope is that we have not yet reached the end. My sure opinion is that the form is changeable.

"It's like when you join an exclusive golf club. You have to be modest at first, and then you suggest changing the rules."

Admiration for the president was widespread, but he also drew some negative reactions from the crowd.

During a question-and-answer session following his speech, politics graduate student Marketa Vlakova asked the president about his position on human rights. She was left unsatisfied.

"My question was, if human rights aren't enforced by the E.U., where's it going to come from?" Vlakova said. "He just said he's not happy with regulations."

When asked by the Justice later that afternoon about his reasons for remaining a member of the E.U., Klaus praised the "undoubtedly positive process, which was the original purpose of the European Community: the opening up of the European market, the removal of various different kinds of barriers, the flow of ideas, goods and services, students, and tourists."

But his fondness for free markets raised some suspicion among those listening.

Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL), one of three experts chosen to question Klaus after his speech, told the Justice she thinks his argument is "curious."

"He doesn't think that there are certain inalienable rights that everyone has. He wants goods to move around but he doesn't want people to move around. I do think the [over-regulation of the E.U.] is just mad, but I don't think he has any reasonable alternatives," Klausen said.

University President Jehuda Reinharz extended a formal invitation for Klaus to teach here, according to a University press release. Reinharz said Brandeis and the Czech Republic are linked because there is a Czech town named Brandeis, where ancestors of the University's namesake once lived, the press release reported.

Klaus received the Brandeis International Business School Dean's Medal for Distinguished Leadership, and was formally praised by IBS Dean Peter Petri for his "sustained, courageous, forceful leadership of the Czech people."

Elected to the presidency in February 2003, Klaus previously served as the Czech Republic's prime minister and as the chairman of the country's parliamentary body, the Chamber of Deputies. He has published over 20 books on social, political and economic subjects and has received international awards and honorary degrees from universities around the world.