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, reports bbn.ee referring to ERR News.
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.
I despair of Western ignorance of their neighbours. I don’t have to imagine response if I drop mention of any of the Baltic States into a dinner or bar conversation. There are blank expressions. This has been my experience time after time. Do I blame the West’s educational system; national parochialism, a media failing; or an inability of these states to sell themselves? Probably it is a combination of them all.
The map that was shown at 2:00 AM on “ALTERNATE FOCUS” (22nd June 2012) on Channel 9415 “FREE SPEECH TV” (about Palestinian issue). The map of Europe had NO Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) in it. As the least think there also was no Belarus, Ukraine, but there was ONE GERMANY. This map is insult to millions of people. That is just RIDICULOUS. I lost trust and respect in your program.