Slovakia

The Slovak Republic became an independent state on 1 January 1993, after the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. The period of its formation is related to the shift in integration on the European continent in connection with the creation of the European Union. The Treaty on European Union (signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992) entered into force (1 November 1993) in the same year the independent Slovak Republic was created. The Slovak Republic was interested in joining the European structures while operating in a common state with the Czech Republic. The signing of the Agreement on Trade in Industrial Products in 1988 between the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the European Economic Community can be considered the first significant step in the European integration processes. This Agreement entered into force on 1 April 1989; however, it was short-lived owing to changes of November 1989. The Agreement between the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic on trade and commercial and economic cooperation was signed in Brussels on 7 May 1990. The Protocol between the European Coal and Steel Community, on the one hand, and the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, on the other hand, was initialled in Brussels on 28 June 1991. More intense integration efforts began in the former Czechoslovakia shortly after the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in November 1989, when changes in the state regime occurred inside the country. This National Report provides an overview of the substantial historical context reflecting the activities of the Slovak Republic first as a candidate, and later as an acceding country.