In mid-February the LFMI received Robert Nef, Director of the Liberales Institute from Switzerland. Founded in 1979, the Liberales Institute is a private think tank promoting the values and concepts of classical liberal tradition. The Institute fulfils its function primarily through organising discussions, lectures and seminars.

During the visit to the LFMI, Robert Nef held a seminar on the European integration. The main idea voiced by the guest-visitor was that the European Union (the EU) is not yet an organisation based on free market mechanisms. Redistributive policies, interference in economic processes and populism are deeply entrenched in the spirit of the EU. EU member states are largely committed to the idea of co-operation but neglect a peaceful and friendly competition, especially in the area of taxation. A large-scale redistribution and government intervention in economic affairs take place as the growth of less developed regions is buttressed at the expense of economically advanced ones. The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties are designed to uphold the idea of a national economy seeking autonomy at the inter-continental level. In addition to that, the EU has no constitution, which would establish safeguards against unjustified tax burdens and market regulation.

Still, Robert Nef believes that Europe has undergone some positive changes. The era of ideologies, he maintains, is over. The new generation is abandoning the distinctions between "the left" and "the right" and is more concerned with how effective ongoing policies are. Joining the EU would pose fewer questions and perplexities if the EU curbed government interventions in the market.

"Openness, diversity and individual autonomy that gives a limited state limited means so that people can meet their individual and social needs with the least possible political control is neither anti-social, anti-ecological nor anti-democratic," Robert Nef contends. Classical economic liberalism, he believes, is not a thing of the past. Today it can make a decisive contribution to the solution of social, political and economic problems.