New EU blood calls for reform

Slovakia has much to teach the EU, Mr Csaky feels

By James Arnold BBC News Online business reporter

After more than a decade of preaching, prodding and prevarication, you might forgive Slovaks for being a little jaded with the European Union.

[The EU] must reform its central institutions if Europe is to remain competitive in the global market

Pal Csaky, Slovak deputy prime minister

Far from it, argues Pal Csaky, Slovakia's deputy prime minister and the man responsible for leading Slovak negotiations with Brussels.

This week, Mr Csaky heads for Copenhagen, where Slovakia will be among 10 mainly East European countries to be formally invited to join the EU.

"This is our great chance: at last Slovakia will become a respected member of the global community," he says.

But like most of his East European counterparts, Mr Csaky also believes that the EU is in dire need of reform.

Willing...

The Slovak delegation is arriving in Copenhagen with a distinctly mixed report card.

On the plus side, Slovakia is one of the most open economies in Europe, bound into the continent's economy far more tightly than many other applicants.

Better still, it is by some distance the most europhile of the 10 applicant countries.

More than 70% of Slovaks endorse EU membership, and Mr Csaky says he expects an even higher "yes" vote when the issue is put to a referendum next June.

In the grind of pre-accession negotiations, this translates into a level of flexibility and willingness to please rarely seen among the haughtier applicants.

"Doing business here - relatively speaking - is a breeze," says one Western lawyer with previous experience in Prague and Warsaw.

... but not able?

On the minus side, Slovakia is markedly less prepared than most of its neighbours.

A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers put Slovakia last among the 10 applicants in terms of legislative and institutional readiness for EU membership.

Mr Csaky deals with Brussels almost daily

After a flurry of lawmaking in the past couple of years, Slovakia now has pretty much all the relevant legislation in place.

But what is now lacking, Brussels fears, is the judicial and regulatory machinery to make that legislation work: the justice system is underfunded and sluggish, the bureaucracy is inefficient and pockets of corruption linger.

"To meet EU standards, Slovakia only needs one more law," says Ralph Johnson, former US ambassador to Slovakia and now a consultant in Bratislava.

"It should consist of just one line: 'enforce the law'."

Late starters

Give us a chance, argues Mr Csaky.

Slovakia can hardly be expected to meet precisely the standards of its neighbours, since it only really started heading definitely towards the EU in 1998, almost a decade after fellow applicants such as the Czech Republic and Poland.

In 1994-98, Slovakia was ruled by Vladimir Meciar, a nationalist demagogue who succeeded in souring relations both east and west, while doing little to promote free-market reform.

The current centre-right government of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has promised to make amends, but remained too toothless to do much during its first term in office.

After being re-elected with an outright majority in September, "now we can really get going," Mr Csaky says.

Happy talk

As this week's Copenhagen summit loomed, contact between Bratislava and Brussels has reached an almost frantic intensity.

A two-speed Europe is an unacceptable model

Pal Csaky

"Interaction is literally day by day, at every level, from ministers and commissioners down to experts in ministries and embassies."

And the process, he says, is firm but fair.

"My partners, at the level of European Commissioners, are pragmatic, well-educated people who understand the situation in the candidate countries and see our problems.

"Lower down the chain, difficulties crop up much more often. The tone of discussions is more bureaucratic, and there are frequent misunderstandings.

"But broadly they all aim to help us."

Time for a change

Mr Csaky's real gripes with the EU run much deeper.

His near-constant contacts with the Brussels bureaucracy have convinced him that the system is in need of a thorough shake-up if EU enlargement is to prove a success.

"Accession is a big challenge - not just for the applicants, but also for the 15 existing members," he says.

That challenge, Mr Csaky reckons, is fourfold:

• 

  Slovakia hopes its voice will not be drowned out
  On the one hand, Brussels "must reform its central institutions if Europe is to remain competitive in the global market," Mr Csaky says. Continent-wide policies, on the economy, defence, foreign affairs and so on, require a unified voice - and one that speaks for all EU members.
• Conversely, "the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Europe is crucial for the region's creativity." As that diversity becomes ever greater, in areas such as education and social policy, Mr Csaky feels the EU must be decentralised.
• Europe, Mr Csaky says, must rid itself of its touchiness over migration. A common policy on the issue must be achieved, and Western countries should drop their fear that countries such as Slovakia will allow immigrants to flood in.
• "A two-speed Europe is an unacceptable model," Mr Csaky feels. Slovakia and other applicants accept that their problems mean they cannot expect all membership privileges immediately, but they insist on an fair say in decision-making.

Wanted: tolerance

The wheels of the Brussels machine turn slowly, and Mr Csaky is under no illusions about the likely pace of reform.

But he is working closely with the European Convention, the agency charged with drawing up plans for the future development of the EU.

Prime Minister Dzurinda aims to erase the past

More broadly, he feels that the injection of new blood will shock the 15 existing EU members out of their complacency.

And while the EU may be able to swallow tiny Slovakia without noticing, he insists that little newcomers have much else to teach.

"We are a model of tolerant co-habitation, with different ethnic groups and religions living peacefully side by side," says Mr Csaky, who himself is from Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian community.

"And, as part of the EU's new eastern border, we can use our experience to act as a bridge to the next generation of applicants."

Easing Ukraine into the EU? That really will call for tolerance.