Juraj Marušiak: Slovakia went through a difficult path, but made it to the EU

Juraj Marušiak

What was Slovakia’s path to the EU? What obstacles did she overcome on the way from association and candidacy to full membership? Newssky asked Dr. Juraj Marušiak from the Institute of Political Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences about this.

The Slovak Republic has signed the Association Agreement with the EU shortly after its establishment in 1993. It was granted associate partner status in 1994. The candidate period lasted until 2003. The process of Slovakia’s integration with the EU was not straightforward. This was due to the complicated process of post-communist transformation, especially in 1994-1998, when authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies began to manifest themselves in domestic and foreign policy during the third government of Vladimir Mečiar. Slovakia was not invited to the accession negotiations in 1997, unlike Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia, due to its failure to meet the political criteria for future membership (functioning democracy and stability of democratic institutions).

It was the threat of international isolation or inclusion in the Russian sphere of influence that was a significant mobilizing factor in the formation of a broad coalition of center-right and center-left democratic parties after the 1998 parliamentary elections. The new government proceeded to implement political and economic reforms that enabled Slovakia to become a member of the EU. The reforms, including the adoption of a large package of European legislation, the so-called acquis communautaire, were very intensive, but also entailed considerable social costs. The association process took the form of negotiations on the implementation of individual chapters. Slovakia gradually moved closer to its Visegrád partners, and information on the progress of negotiations with the EU was gradually exchanged between the individual countries of the group at the V4 level. The fact is that the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary have had a certain lead over ale Slovakia since 1997. Slovakia has been helped by the EU’s attitude, which has accepted the so-called regatta principle. This allowed Slovakia to gradually close the gap with its neighbors and in December 1999, at the EU summit in Helsinki, Slovakia was invited to join the accession negotiations along with countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Romania, and Bulgaria. The course towards European integration was confirmed by the 2002 elections. Therefore, in December 2002, at the EU Summit in Copenhagen, Slovakia was officially admitted as a member of the EU, on the recommendation of the European Commission. This summit marked the beginning of the next stage — a referendum on EU accession in Slovakia, the signing of the Accession Treaty and its ratification by the national parliaments of the EU Member States as well as by the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

The main issue was the restructuring of the Slovak economy, but also the adoption of legislation that created a market environment in Slovakia compatible with the EU environment. The liberalization of the market also required reforms in the energy sector, where the so-called natural monopolies are most strongly represented. Finally, one of the long-standing problems has been and remains the high level of corruption.

In Ukrainian

Maryna Kovalchuk, Newssky, contributed