Since the Velvet Revolution and the signing of the European Association Agreement in 1993, one of main priorities of your foreign policy has been the accession to the EU. How would you qualify the progress made by your Government towards the adoption of the Acquis Communautaire?
Maybe I wouldn't go as far as the Velvet Revolution, I would rather start with the creation of independent Slovakia. Since the split from the former Czechoslovakia the decision was made that Slovakia's future is in the EU and the NATO. There were some difficulties in the years 1994 till 1998 when Slovakia was little behind our neighboring countries Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland due to the deficit of democracy in Slovakia. Since the coming of this Government into office after the parliamentary election in September 1998, the whole situation changed. A year later we were invited to start the pre-accession negotiations concerning the full membership of Slovakia. We are doing very well so far, we have opened all the negotiating chapters and so far we have closed 21 out of 29. Practically, Slovakia leveled up with the countries that started the negotiations two years earlier. We are in the same group now and hope that in the timeframe set by the EU about the new accessions in 2004 Slovakia will be among the new countries becoming a proper member. I don't want to speak about the past, there were political as well as other reasons. We know that there is still a long way to go. We started with easier chapters, the more difficult are still ahead of us. When we got started in 2000, to become a proper member in 2004 seemed to be too ambitious. Now it looks like we will be able to make it.
You are the co-ordinator of the integration process to NATO, which should be concluded end of 2002. Even if EU and NATO integration processes do not have the same goals, your Government's approaches towards those two challenges seem to be closely linked…
Actually, these are two complementary accessions. NATO membership means security but we consider NATO to be a military alliance. We consider it to be a community of the countries which proceed the same values and the same philosophy. We definitely want to become a member of that family. Our three partners within the Visegrad group are already members, we have got excellent preparation with them. Without any exaggeration, Slovakia is a credible candidate for the membership. We expect that the NATO summit in Prague in 2002 will send an invitation out for Slovakia to become a member. We want to use the time remaining to finish the reform in the army and all the necessary legislation. If you look at the map, Slovakia's borders would be natural to be the borders of NATO. We don't want to be just consumers of this security. The central European region has always been very sensitive throughout the history. Two world wars started here. We want to contribute to the security of the whole Europe.
On November 20th you have organized a session gathering all the NATO ambassadors. What did expect out of this meeting?
We are going through the most important period concerning the NATO membership. It was the gathering concerning the cooperation of our steps in order to strengthen the position Slovakia has now for the future membership. We know we have to present everything we have achieved so far in a more transparent way. We also want to coordinate the steps of ten aspiring NATO countries. We want to show the solidarity towards each member of that group. I have to say that solidarity cannot stand for individual efforts of each single group. We are glad we knew the situation in Europe after the September 11th. We hope it will not stop the enlargement of NATO. We are confident that the original schedule will not be affected.
Some businessmen tend to say that the acceptance of Slovakia into EU can't be achieved through economic performance only, but also through some fundamental change in minds and social being. Do you believe that Slovak people will have the means to socially adapt to the society of the European Union?
I think so. In the year 2004 Slovakia will
be ready in all the areas, even the people's
minds. There is a huge public support for
the membership in Slovakia. Last polls showed
that 76% of the population in Slovakia support
the membership of Slovakia in the Union and
5% of the population only are against our
membership in EU. The people think that there
is no other option for Slovakia. We don't
want to raise expectations too high, because
it would be wrong. We are explaining that
it will provide a lot of opportunities to
work and study abroad. There are similar conditions
for others, so competition will be much stronger.
The performance will have to be outstanding
and that will raise the demands as well. Some
unprofitable sectors will be destroyed by
this new situation. |
CEFTA was signed in Dec 1992 and results from the efforts of its members to join the EU. How would you describe today your relationship with other members of the Visegrad group and CEFTA?
We are active participants in CEFTA, we think that cooperation is good for the future membership in the EU. It is upon all the CEFTA members to prepare for the future activities. It is worth continuing that kind of cooperation. We have good relationship with all the CEFTA states, especially with our neighboring countries. I would like to mention Visegrad 4 group. It is not institutionalized, it is not structured, but we cooperate in a very natural way.
Mutual trade in the frame of CEFTA is supposed to be liberalized completely in 2002. Is that goal realistic?
Maybe we will not achieve everything that was planned within CEFTA. Generally not all the objectives that had been planned will be fulfilled, but I don't consider it to be a big tragedy. Things achieved will be beneficial for all the participants.
Do you think that CEFTA may accept new members in the future?
Countries that want to become a CEFTA member will get our support, but they have to fulfill three conditions. They have to be members of WTO, they have to have free trade agreements with all the CEFTA countries and have to have signed the EU Association Agreement.
We know that you have just opened a new Slovak Embassy building in Washington D.C. To what extent does this event reflects the willingness of the Slovak Government to establish a new partnership with the United States?
I would like to say that we have excellent relations with the United States, in fact we have never had better relations. The building opened in June 2001 in Washington D.C. is the first building of the independent Slovak Republic opened abroad. We started there, we are going to build a one in Berlin. All the others we either inherited from the former Czechoslovakia or rented. For us it symbolizes the level of cooperation and good relationship that we have with the USA. This building was designed by our architects, it will add flavor for the visitors that come to the Embassy, it will be used more actively. We hope it will be a little part of Slovakia in Washington D.C. It will be decorated by paintings and sculptures made by Slovak artists. The whole atmosphere and working conditions of our diplomats working there is going to be affected very positively. It is a symbol of dynamism that we plan to bring.
In 1999, you were named by Kofi Annan, to the position of UN Secretary General's special envoy for the Balkan. What have been your main achievements so far within this area?
At the time I was named to this position to solve friendly the situation in Kosovo, we were not a big player in the solution of this issue. I met a lot of Prime Ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs those days in order to take that issue back to the United Nations. I cannot give you the direct results. This issue was resolved by the Security Council Resolution 12-44. This created the basis for the future solution of the Kosovo issue. That was out contribution. Now there is a United Nations mission in Kosovo organizing every day life and there were the elections headed be the Special Representative of the Secretary General. That was our quiet diplomacy that brought the change of the situation. Our mission was to bring the minds of different leaders together to reach a mutual approach.
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V.I.P. INTERVIEWS 
