Baltic States – CIS, Education and Science, EU – Baltic States

Herta Mueller.

Ms Mueller, a Romanian-born German, has focused most of her novels and essays on life under dictatorship, under constant fear and intimidation by Romania's secret police, the Securitate. Deportation and labour camps in the Soviet Union, as experienced by her own parents, are depicted in the latest novel, Atemschaukel (in English: Everything I Possess I Carry With Me), for which she won the Nobel prize last year, writes EUObserver/LETA.

In Brussels on Tuesday (April 13) to promote the book, Ms Mueller however focussed on the present, expressing her dissatisfaction with the EU's lack of pressure on new member states to deal with their Communist past.

"I think the EU acted pretty naively by taking these countries on so quickly and was not able to foresee what kind of crafty and obstructionist barriers they would be faced with," she told journalists during a press conference at the Passa Porta literature house in Brussels.

Although she personally felt "nothing special" about being a Nobel prize winner, the 57-year old said there was some positive impact in the sense that it "pushed the topic of dictatorship into the spotlight."

"Maybe what I say is being listened to by more people and perceived differently. That's what I'm trying to use the prize for."

Ms Mueller finds nothing wrong with claims that the Nobel prize jury is making mainly political decisions when granting these awards: "Literature is not something apolitical. All literary prizes are now and then surrounded by scandals and mostly because of political reasons."

Asked if she felt any pressure for her future writing having won the award, Ms Mueller replied: "Pressure was during the dictatorship. When my house was being searched, when I was interrogated."

"If I am satisfied with anything concerning my life, it is not the books, but the fact that I somehow managed to keep my integrity during the Romanian dictatorship. That's the most important thing. For me, writing is a job like any other," Mueller said.