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The year 2007 was the fifteenth year of Slovakia’s independence. In that time the Slovak Republic has transformed from a country striving to strengthen its identity and prove itself, building administrative capacities and its position in international relations almost from zero – to a country which is firmly anchored in reliable and secure integration structures of the world and active in the most significant relations of international events. Although Slovakia is not a great power, in its own way it managed to create adequate conditions for the promotion of its interests as well as unambiguously and consistently to operate in favor of the international community while applying the principles of democracy, humanity and solidarity in the fight for human rights and against poverty and other global threats.
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In the period since the last parliamentary elections in the Slovak Republic, in 2006, we can identify two main trends in Slovakia’s activities in the European Union (EU). First of all Slovakia is showing significant continuity in the fulfillment of integration priorities of the previous governmental coalition of Mikuláš Dzurinda. The governmental coalition of Prime Minister Robert Fico has focused on the successful finalization of Slovakia’s full-fledged membership to the EU mainly through accession to the Schengen area and the Eurozone. Secondly, the current government has not introduced any new Slovak strategic priorities in the EU except for the activities of the European Nuclear Forum which the SR initiated in cooperation with the Czech Republic in 2007.
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Our membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was a unique opportunity to show that the Slovak Republic is a responsible member of the international community capable of contributing to the resolution of both global and regional issues. It was historically the first membership of the independent Slovak Republic in the UNSC, which is generally considered the most effective instrument for dealing with the questions of international peace and security. Slovakia was thus given the historically first opportunity to assume an appropriate share of global responsibility and directly take part in the resolution of current security issues and challenges in the world and in the adoption of the relevant decisions of this body.
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It has become a certain cliché to describe the security situation of Slovakia and Europe as relatively calm but at the same time changeable and hardly predictable. However this cliché is based on reality. It is true that Slovakia is not facing an existential threat. However on the other hand, Europe is being periodically startled by new forms of vulnerabilities which make the entire concept of security much more complex: cyber attacks – for example those which targeted Estonian servers in 2007 or the threat to energy security posed by interruptions in natural gas supplies like in Ukraine in 2006 (and again in 2008). Furthermore we can observe the growing doubts about the development in Russia whose foreign policy can probably be best described as a ‘soft’ confrontation with the West. In Russia’s closest neighborhood, for example Georgia, Moscow has already used military force against an independent state.
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In international circles, Slovakia is branded a successful and dynamic European country; especially in the region of the Western Balkans. In Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in the entire Western Balkans, Slovakia has a good reputation. It is admired for a peaceful split from former Czechoslovakia and equally for the capacity to solve big national questions by way of political compromise and agreement. The whole of the Western Balkans recognizes Slovakia also in the bigger picture of new EU members’ achievements. And it is increasingly capable of distinguishing in the collective picture.
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It can be argued that after the accession to the European Union the Visegrad Four has been looking for new priorities and goals. Nevertheless, it has become obvious that it is quite difficult to find goals comparable to the EU and NATO accession. Though almost immediately after the accession the representatives of the V4 identified new priority areas for future cooperation and embodied them in the Kroměříž Declaration1, skeptical voices regarding the viability of the V4 regional initiative under new conditions of the EU membership could not have been overlooked. To some extent, not only the EU, but also the V4 countries were suffering from the post-enlargement fatigue and had to adapt to their new roles of EU member states.
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The Slovak government, which was formed after the June 2006 parliamentary elections, made a commitment in its Manifesto to intensify the economic dimension of Slovak diplomacy. Prime Minister Robert Fico specified that the diplomacy’s economic dimension would concern mainly the further development of Slovakia’s relations with Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe. He stated that he would personally advocate for the improvement of Slovak-Russian relations, which until now, had been, as to his view, downgraded by Slovak diplomacy. According to him, the relations with Russia will be stimulated, because the new cabinet will provide significantly more support to the economic dimension of foreign policy including countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and China.
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The Official Development Assistance (ODA) is an important pillar of the Slovak foreign policy. Its importance is still growing; therefore an attempt should be made to expand its scope in the years to come. The year 2007 can be marked as a significant one for the development assistance. This article analyzes mainly the institutional and the legislative changes in the Slovak ODA and compares the territorial and sectoral focus of bilateral projects in the periods before and after these changes took effect.
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One of changes the recent years have brought to the planning and implementation of the SR’s foreign policy is its strong economization. This is linked not only to a permanent pressure on increasing efficiency of spending on a whole scale of activities in its execution but, in a broader sense, to the place, which the economy and its needs should occupy in the activities of constitutional actors, the government’s economic ministries, and the SR’s diplomatic missions abroad. Simultaneously, it is not just a matter of export support or the preparation of the legal basis for cooperation in various areas of the economy, which is the most commonly identified activity in this regard.
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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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Both Finland and Germany are countries with traditional interest in developing relations with East European neighbors. Thanks to their coordinated effort during the consequent EU presidencies in 2006 – 2007, including close interaction with the Commission, they managed to advance the strategic framework for the EU policy towards Eastern Europe. First of all, the Finnish and German presidencies made the first real steps towards addressing the main deficit of the existing strategic framework for the EU’s policy on Eastern Europe.
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The shifts in the global security environment and new security threats have brought a deepening of intergovernmental cooperation within the existing integration groups. Besides the reform of NATO, they have also brought about the strengthening of the security and defense dimension of the European Union. On the grounds of their experiences from Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 1995), Kosovo (from 1999), and Afghanistan (from 2003) and under the pressure of the current security threats, the member states of NATO are gradually coming to terms with the fact that the deployment of military instruments of crisis management represents the most effective means in the case of extensive future crises and high-intensity conflicts, if diplomatic efforts were to fail. Appropriate attention is also dedicated to civil instruments of crisis management considering that their coordinated deployment along with military instruments represents the most effective means of prevention and elimination of security crises and conflicts. The Slovak Republic began to materialize these current trends which were taking place in NATO after its accession. NATO and the EU have become the most important platforms for the realization of Slovakia’s foreign, security and defense policies as well as instruments for the implementation of Slovakia’s interests and goals. In these terms, it is the prime interest of the Slovak Republic to contribute to the effective distribution of work between both organizations and prevent their mutual competition and subsequent weakening. From Slovakia’s point of view the rivalry between individual member states of NATO and the EU, which could lead to the paralysis of their operability and a loss of credibility of both organizations, represents the greatest threat.
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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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