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After three years of EU membership, we may see Slovakia as a careful member state, which, with a few exceptions, defers rather than acts. The explanation lies not only in the change of the government in 2006, but also in worthlessness, lack of willingness and inability to create and enforce a sustainable integration strategy of the country.
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In the past few years, the issue of EU institutional reform has been somehow connected with the document called The Treaty for Establishing a Constitution for Europe1. As for this document, it can be said that 2005 was a year of ratification while 2006 was a year of reflection. However, the ratification did not proceed smoothly. The Constitutional Treaty was turned down by the citizens of the two member states in referenda. However, the reflection period did not mark any progress either – new ideas did not appear and no acceptable solution to the ‘constitutional crises’ was developed. Thus even in 2007, the European Union rolls its institutional ‘boulder’.
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The foreign policy of the Slovak Republic (SR) towards the Western Balkans in 2006 did not differ in its orientation from the previous year. Not even early parliamentary elections in June 2006 caused a drift in the direction of foreign policy towards the Western Balkans and the region, despite certain vagueness in the document Aims of foreign policy of the SR in 2006, remained one of the strategic priorities of foreign policy and Slovak development assistance. On the other hand, the year 2006 was a special period for foreign policy towards the region and Slovak diplomacy achieved a number of successes, the process of a declaration of independence by Montenegro, directed and controlled by Slovak diplomats, being the most significant of them.
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The co-shared responsibility of developed countries for global development makes countries like Slovakia consider the Official Development Assistance (ODA), an official component of its foreign policy. The issue of fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals became the agenda of the international community once again after the September 2005 UN summit in New York. The highest officials of Slovakia expressed their commitment to these goals at the summit. Thus as a member of the donor community, Slovakia is willing to contribute to solving the global issues i.e. to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve the universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.
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Although history of European integration has known discussions about the final direction of the European Union, the so-called finalité, for as long as since the 1950’s, the text entitled “constitution”, for many federalists a sign of hope that European integration will move towards a federal state, emerged only recently. The modern history of constitution in Europe can be surveyed back to year 2000 when the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer, on the ground of Humboldt University, gave his breakthrough speech in which he retrieved the idea of drafting the European Constitution. In the following months, other important figures of European politics joined in debates about the necessity, advantages and disadvantages of such a step. Following the unsatisfying results of negotiations about the Treaty of Nice (December 2000) and following the call of the Laeken Declaration (December 2001), the task to draw up the Constitution for the EU was finally taken over by the European Convention, which appointed itself into this role. The final text of the Treaty elaborated based on negotiations of this Convention – and as many critics claim, originating mainly from the quills of Valéry Giscard d’Estaigne – was first submitted to the European Council in December 2003. The representatives of EU member states did not reach an agreement on the final draft of the text of the Constitutional Treaty (CT) and, therefore, after negotiations and adjustments, the document was resubmitted to the European Council in June 2004 when it finally gained a general approval. The representatives of all EU member states signed the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in October 2004 in Rome. The year of 2005 became very crucial for CT as it was the year of its ratification.
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Even though the Slovak Republic officially supports the policy of further enlargement of the European Union, this support has its limits. In view of the main aspects of Slovakia’s involvement in the EU during the year 2005, the then Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda stated in front of the members of the Committee on European Affairs of the National Council of the SR that a year and a half after joining the Union, it has become apparent that Slovakia is not only a consumer but also a creator of EU policies. While submitting the comprehensive report on the first year of Slovakia’s membership in the EU, from 1 May 2004 to 30 April 2005 M. Dzurinda highlighted the contribution of Slovakia especially to the opening of accession negotiations with Croatia. Considering the strategic decisions on the political arrangement of the EU, it would seem that Slovakia’s representatives are mainly adopting a supranational approach, according to which the Union is an autonomous unit “primarily designed for finding policy solutions in the interest of a common European good”.
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Active participation of Slovak Armed Forces (AF SR) in international peace missions for peacekeeping, preserving security, crisis management and fighting against terrorism is one of the main components of the foreign and security policy of the Slovak Republic since her formation in 1993. The number of active members of the AF SR in peace missions as well as the international organization in charge reflected the current foreign policy ambitions and interests of Slovakia. In the first years of its existence as a sovereign state, Slovakia’s peace missions under UN command dominated foreign participation of the AF SR. The ambitions of Slovakia to become a member of the European union, but especially NATO, called for a need of participation in missions under the command of the Alliance. After the 1998 parliamentary elections, an increase in the number of armed forces members in peace missions was ordered as well as the successive re-evaluation of the activities in individual operations and missions, with primary emphasis on operations under NATO command. Active participation in operations under its command was to serve as a demonstration of Slovakia’s preparedness to become a full member of the Alliance. In accordance with its capacities, Slovakia participated in observing and monitoring missions under EU command and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) respectively. The alteration of the security environment due to the events after 11 September 2001 and particularly the accession of Slovakia into NATO and the EU raised a need to prepare and accept new security policy documents to replace the Security Strategy of the Slovak Republic 2001, Defense Strategy of the Slovak Republic 2001 and Military Strategy of the Slovak Republic 2001. The new security policy (strategic security) documents, the Security Strategy of the Slovak Republic and Defense Strategy of the Slovak Republic, were enacted in 20051 . Both are linked to the NATO Strategic Concept and the European Security Strategy by content as well as by method.
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For the first time since its foundation in 1993, the Slovak Republic has gained an opportunity to become a (non-permanent) member of the Security Council of the Organization of the United Nations (UN SC) for the years 2006-2007, which was confirmed during the year of 2005. The relative confidence that SR will win this prestigious seat was predicted as early as 2004 when the 22-member Eastern European Regional Group (EERG) which occupies one seat in the UN SC approved of the SR candidacy for this position on 30 November 2006, which made Slovakia the only candidate. The whole process within EERG was formally accomplished by sending the letter from EERG Chairman to the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan and to Chairmen of other regional groups. The election in the General Assembly of the UN for the UN SC took place on 10 October 2005. SR was elected non-permanent member of the UN SC by 185 votes out of the total of 191 UN member countries. Only six countries abstained.
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Slovakia considers the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to be one of the key organizations in security architecture. It is unique in its consensual decision-making and variety of its participating states. Democratic conditions and stability of internal and external security of a country are, unfortunately, unreachable by one or a series of decisions guaranteeing achievement of this surely desired result. Retention of security and democracy must be strived for with the aim to reach the ideal that is hardly reachable or even precisely defined. At the same time, it must be kept in mind that prospective care negligence of the two basic assumptions of modern prospering society might not show up immediately, but rather in several months’ or, even, in several years’ time. As a permanent protector of the two key values, the OSCE has thus an important place in the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic.
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2005 was the first year of Slovakia’s implementing its post-integration foreign policy priorities. In March 2004, the Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, in his speech at the Foreign Policy Review Conference, emphasised that Ukraine and the Western Balkans are of primary importance to the Slovak foreign policy after the EU and NATO accession. In his opinion, Slovakia has the ambition to become a supporter of Ukraine and the countries of the Western Balkans in the EU and NATO as well as to assist them in their reforms and civil society development. The first steps towards the Ukraine were made by the Slovak government in 2004.
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Taking a closer look at Slovakia’s activities in the region of the Western Balkans in 2005, one must admit that the Slovak Republic attempted to fulfil its aim to influence the whole region more consistently. It also activated its leverage in those countries of the region where it had been more or less absent until quite recently. Although the paper reflects changes that occurred recently in relations to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Macedonia and Albania, the Slovak attention remains focused on Serbia and Montenegro and, partly, on Croatia. Aware of the motivation potential of the European Union, the SR became one of the loudest and most persistent advocates of the integration of the Western Balkans countries into the EU and of enforcing particular mechanisms for materialization of such an event. Despite this fact, there are only very few visible initiatives developed at the bilateral level which would more significantly contribute to democratization and transformation of the region (except for Serbia and Montenegro and, eventually, Croatia). The recommendations offered at the end of the article are based on the belief that Slovakia definitely possesses the internal capacity and, at the same time, the duty, given its historical experience, to influence positive processes in all countries of this region. The EU initiatives as well as a great variety of initiatives in the countries of the Western Balkans also leave space for Slovak performance. A precondition for successful fulfilling of our foreign political commitments in the region still remains to be better knowledge of the internal situation and processes in each of the countries in the region as well as the existence of aimed strategies for individual societies based on this knowledge about the internal situation and processes with the common denominator of eventual integration of all Western Balkan countries into the EU.
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The importance of the foreign economic policy of state grows with the importance assigned to the direct foreign investments (DFI) within it. Decreasing of the capital under-dimension within transforming economies significantly is realized mainly through the influx of the DFI, which is why the primary aim of the foreign economic policy of market economies is based on creation of an environment which is in favor of the investments and support of influx of the DFI to the economy. A country which does not assign sufficient importance to such investments usually does not have an outstanding foreign economic policy. An undeniably positive correlation between the influx of the DFI and a growth of production of gross domestic fixed capital as a precondition for stable and sustainable economic growth contributed to the situation when also the countries remarkable for their relation to the DFI as well as to the isolation tendencies in the 1990s left the given path. Together with Bulgaria and Romania, Slovakia is definitely one of them. A membership of the country in the World Trade Organization, in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, NATO and, primarily, in the European Union is the most basic precondition for competitiveness of Slovakia in the “struggle” for the DFI with neighboring countries. A cost structure of the production, level of wages, the infrastructure equipment, the qualification level of inhabitants, sufficient offer of completed industrial parks, an administratively flexible policy of providing the investors with individual state assistance and pro-investment macro-economic environment of the country belong to the main objective criteria positively affecting localization decisions of the investors about investments in the country and they can also be considered to be important determinants of execution of a successful pro investment policy.
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While in 2004 Slovakia achieved its integration aims in terms of European Union and NATO membership, the year 2005 brought about new challenging tasks for both political elites and the general public to be accomplished, i.e. taking action as a member country by implementing the policy effectively. The position of Slovakia was strengthened not only by its EU and NATO membership but also by a number of events such as the Bush-Putin summit held in February 2005 in Bratislava, an increased activity of Slovak diplomacy and NGOs in maintaining stability and developing democracy in other countries as well as Slovakia’s becoming an elected member of UN Security Council, which contributed to the process of gaining a better position internationally.
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