Czechs comfortable with joining EU
By CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- The scene: a nightclub in Prague -- not an uncommon sight in a country on the brink of joining the European Union.
For the beautiful people, signing up to Brussels is almost like having a good time -- it just has to be done.
"It's hard to say what might happen, but I think it's gonna help the Czech Republic," says Ms. Czech Republic 2003.
Adds her predecessor, Ms. Czech Republic 2002: "Everything will be better, better prices and more jobs for models."
Elsewhere and in a somewhat more sedate setting, Ivan Havel is holding court. An academic, only a ponytail belies his revolutionary genes -- his brother is former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
The EU doesn't hold many fears for Ivan Havel except the possibility of an intellectual Bohemian brain drain.
"Now we have a sort of economical drying of intellectuals," says Havel, director of the Center for Theoretical Study.
"(For a) scientist or university professor, (it) is much easier to earn much more money in some Western university than here," he says, where the universities are "permanently under-budgeted."
In a country renowned for its art and intellectualism and a revolution which came wrapped in velvet, the attitude to Europe is casual, almost ambivalent.
"There are so many reasons for it. We have for centuries been living with two big neighbors -- the Germans and the Russians," says Martin Stropnicky, director of the Vinohrady Theater.
"The Czech citizen is always a bit skeptical about everything and really hiding some really hidden and inner emotional feelings."
On the surface, at least, all seems well. Prague's spectacular scenery and low costs have provided the backdrop for many an international movie.
Film sets are a common sight around the city, but pending EU membership could mean higher prices.
Nancy Bishop is a casting agent in Prague. An American, she came for a short while several years ago and has never left.
"Of course we are concerned that prices will go up and it would make it less economical to shoot here," says Bishop.
"But like I say, we do hope that we still have the beautiful historic locations that were unspoiled by World War II and also because we do have such experienced crews."
Adds Stropnicky: "Our culture at least, our films are specific to a certain extent. We have a kind of filming, a way of watching the world around us. I don't think that Hungarians, Polish or German actors could do it better."
And it's perhaps that way of watching the world that makes the Czech character unique. Joining the EU, while significant, is almost procedural.
"I would say it is a reflection of a major development which we already take more or less for granted," says Czech EU Commissioner Pavel Telicka.
The Czech people, Telicka says, are "pragmatic, practical, liberal. I think this is a very liberal society. "We can bring some of that into the EU, bring some creativity.
"I think that both parties can profit, the Czech Republic as well as the union."
The Czech word for comfort is podha. It's a term often used to describe the Czech national psyche, the wholehearted embrace of a stress-free lifestyle.
It's a national trait that allowed the Czechs to flourish during the Austro-Hungarian empire, helped prevent Prague from being destroyed during World War II and allowed the Czechs to fare better under communist rule than many of their eastern bloc neighbors.
The newly opened Museum of Communism is a reminder of that bygone era, which has left a distinct aftertaste in the minds of many Czechs.
The distant past, like the Czech people, is waiting impassively to see what the new EU future will bring.
