18. Welcomesthe fact that the Commissionandthe Czech Republic are in the processofjointlydevel-
oping andimplementing aninformationstrategy designed toexplain the real short-termproblemsandthelong-term benefits of EUenlargement to the general public;
19. Points out that it is essential to step up a structured dialogue with organised civil society, particu-
larlyasmanygroupsknowverylittleabouttherealconsequencesofaccessionandthedebateinsocietyis
frequentlydeterminedbyspeculationandconjecture,andthereforecallsontheCommissionandtheCzechauthorities to provide appropriate resources for information campaigns to improve public understanding
of the accession issue;
20. Welcomes the new overview expected from the French Presidency which is designed to set out all
the enlargement-related problems on both sides as it may give a new impetus to the negotiations;
21. InstructsitsPresidenttoforwardthisresolutiontothe Council,the Commission,the parliamentsof
the Member States and the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic.
7. Slovakia
A5-0244/2000
European Parliament resolution on Slovakia’s membership application to the European Union and
the state of negotiations (COM(1999) 511 /dash C5-0034/2000 /dash 1997/2173(COS))
The European Parliament,
/dash having regard to Slovakia’s application for membership of the European Union submitted on 27 June
1995, pursuant to Article 49 of the TEU,
/dash having regard to the opinion of the Commission on this application (COM(1997) 2004 /dash C4-0376/
1997),
/dash having regard to the 1999 Regular Report on Slovakia’s progress towards accession (COM(1999) 511
/dash C5-0034/2000) and to the 1999 Composite Paper of the Commission (COM(1999) 500 /dash
C5-0341/2000),
/dash having regard to the decisions taken by the European Council, notably in Copenhagen (21/22 June
1993), Luxembourg (12/13 December 1997) and Helsinki (10/11 December 1999),
/dash having regard totheEurope Agreement betweentheEuropean CommunitiesanditsMemberStatesof
the one part and Slovakia of the other part,
/dash having regard to the revised EU-Slovak Accession Partnership and to the second Slovak National Pro-
gramme for the Adoption of the Acquis,
/dash having regard to its resolution of 3 December 1998 on Slovakia’s application for membership of the
European Union, with a view to the Vienna European Council (11/12 December 1998)(1),
/dash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,/dash having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security
and Defence Policy (A5-0244/2000),
A. whereas the conclusions of the Council of Helsinki followed the strategic recommendation of the
European Parliament to open negotiations with all Central Eastern European candidate countries,
B. whereas these conclusions underline the principle of full differentiation in the negotiation process,
(1) OJ C 398, 21.12.1998, p. 52.22.6.2001 EN C 178/143 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000
C. whereas the new and democratic Slovak government and Parliament during 1999 have made signifi-
cant legislative efforts in fulfilling a large majority of the short-term priorities of the 1998 AccessionPartnership related to the internal market,
D. whereas Slovakiahastocontinue toadaptitseconomytomeetthe requirements ofthe acquis commu-
nautaireand in particular to adapt its financial sector,
E. whereas Slovakia is working intensively on fulfilling the short-term priority of the Accession Partner-
ship concerning the establishment of detailed approximation programmes and implementation strate-gies in the field of environment,
F. whereas Slovakia needs to work more intensively on fulfilling the short-term priorities in the field of
regional policies,
G. whereas Slovakia still needs to improve its national minorities policy, particularly in the fields of lan-
guage, education and culture, and whereas this should lead to the acknowledgement of a degree ofcultural autonomy,
H. whereas the lack of efficient and effective financial control and audit capacities is a weakness in the
Slovak administration and needs further improvements,
1. Welcomes the fact that the constitutional stability, democratic practices, and the rule of law are
firmly entrenched in the Slovak political culture at large and calls on the Slovak government to fullyimplement its ambitious reform programme in order to put Slovakia back into the vanguard of the acces-
sion process;
2. Welcomes the adoption by the Slovak parliament of the law on openness in national government,
whose entry into force on 1 January 2001 will signify a very important step towards a ‘civil society’ and
also make a substantial contribution to fighting corruption;
3. Supports the Slovak intention to carry out important constitutional reforms like the cancellation of
theprobationaryperiodforjudges,changes tothenominationandremovalprocedureforjudges,enabling
the transpositionofEUlegislation by government decree and strengthening of the powers ofthe constitu-
tional court with the broadest possible political consensus and in a timely manner;
4. Welcomesthat the Slovakgovernment has adopteda National Programme forthe Fight against Cor-
ruption (NPFAC) and expects Slovakia to intensify its fight against corruption and organised crime /dash fully
aware of the fact that this is an endemic problem in many Central European countries;
5. Recalls that, asregards the ever increasing trafficking in women,Slovakiais botha country oforigin
and a country of transit and/or destination; calls on the Slovak government to adopteffective measures totackle trafficking in human beings and to ensure that the victims of such trafficking are guaranteed con-
crete and effective support;
6. WelcomesthefactthattheSlovakgovernmenthasdevelopedaRomastrategy andurgesthegovern-
ment to implement this strategy and monitor the effects of the different projects in close association withthe Roma communities and local authorities so as to guarantee a continuous check on its results which
should feed back into further fine-tuning of the projects implemented; considers that a change in people’s
attitudes towards the Roma is of fundamental importance if it is to be possible for the Roma to becomeintegrated into Slovak society;
7. Trusts that the provisions of the Law on the Use of Minority Languages of 1999 are going to be
implemented and prevail, as a matter of subsequent and specific laws, when interpreting and applying the
Law in relation to the provisions of the Law on the State Language, calls on the Slovak government toimprove its policy of cultural subsidies in favour of cultural diversity and the maintenance of nationalminorities’ cultural heritage;
8. CallsontheEuropeanCommissionandtheCounciltomakesufficientfundsunderPhareavailableto
assist Slovakia in the tackling of this European problem and consider the setting up of a multi-countryprogramme to address this multi-country problem;C 178/144 EN22.6.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000
9. Welcomes that the joint assessment of the medium-term economic policy priorities of Slovakia has
been signed with the European Commissionand that the government hastakendecisive stepsonthe pathof economic reform so that Slovakia can soon be regarded as a functioning market economy;
10. Calls on the Commission to monitor how the Slovak government deals with further privatisation
and restructuring of the economy, in particular of the banking and finance sector and how it pursues thepath of fiscal consolidation;
11. Welcomes further that the government has been successful in keeping a close dialogue with the
social partners, and labour unions in particular by consulting them regularly on the government’s eco-
nomic strategy, which contributes to the necessary cohesion on social issues that will facilitate the acces-sion process;
12. Welcomes the accession of Slovakia to the OECD;
13. Calls on Slovakia, given the strong support for EUmembership in the public and its potential, to
continue the speed of alignment to the EU acquisin order to ensure a speedy negotiation process for the
more difficult negotiation chapters (e.g. environment and agriculture) and in order to enable Slovakia toaccede totheUniontogetherwiththefirstnewmembers;recommendstheSlovakRepublic toremovethelegal obstacles still blocking transition to the second stage of the Europe Agreement;
14. SupportstheagreementreachedwiththeEuropeanCommissiontoshutdownthetworeactorunits
of the Bohunice nuclear power plant in 2006 and 2008 respectively and supports the allocation of finan-
cial resources from the Union to implement these plans;
15. Welcomes the decision by the Slovak and Hungarian governments to reopen the Maria Valeria
bridge between their two countries, as a sign of European integration and their support for freedom of
movement;
16. Reminds the Slovak Republic that public administration and civil service reforms remain to be
implementedandeffortsstillneedtobemadeinstrengthening theimplementationandenforcementcapa-
cities in the administrationin particular in the fieldofagriculture, veterinary andphytosanitarylegislation,
the environment and regional and structural policies;
17. Reminds Slovakia that without such implementation capacities Slovakia will not be able to utilise
the pre-accession funds PHARE, ISPA and Sapard to the full;
18. Pointsoutfurther thataspeedydevelopmentoftheinstrumentsforaneffective regionalpolicywill
be helpful to deal with the socio-economic effects of the accession to the EUspecifically in the peripheralregions of Slovakia and calls on Slovakia to address the regional disparities in the country;
19. Welcomes proposals to this effect; calls on Slovakia to continue the building-up of effective finan-
cial control and audit procedures which are needed if the use of the pre-accession funds is to be checkedthoroughly;
20. Calls on the Commission and the Council to ensure that the principle of differentiation is fully
implemented in the negotiation process so that all countries from the Helsinki group have a realistic
chance of catching up with the Luxembourg group if sufficient progress is made;
21. Supports the Commissionin its effortsto maintain the dynamics of the pre-accession strategy with
all candidate countries and underlines again its firm conviction that all negotiating countries should be
treated equally;
22. Welcomes that the European Commission and the Slovak government are in the process of devel-
oping and implementing together a targeted informationstrategy for boththe candidate countries and the
Member States which will inform the citizens of Europe about the advantages of enlargement;
23. Calls on those EUMember States that require Slovak citizens to have entry visas to remove such
requirements as soon as possible;
24. InstructsitsPresidenttoforwardthisresolutiontothe Commission,the Council,the parliamentsof
the Member States and the Slovak Government and Parliament.22.6.2001 EN C 178/145 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000