Habersack, Sabine - Puşcaş, Vasile - Ciubotă, Viorel (szerk.): Democraţia in Europa centrală şi de Sud-Est - Aspiraţie şi realitate (Secolele XIX-XX) (Satu Mare, 2001)
Ivo Samson: Security Policy of the Slovak Republic: Meeting NATO Criteria before Madrid and after Washington
Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Slovakia, that has logically belonged to this group, too, has got somewhat isolated in the last seven years due to developments in domestic policy. This is the principal reason why three out of those four countries have been in NATO since 1999 and why all four still have better chances of EU membership. Apart from the first group, in CEE we have the former post-Communist countries that have not reached political stability and are still fighting for economic macrostabilization. These countries experience security handicaps owing to large ethnic minorities of their own living abroad or to foreign minorities living on their territory. We speak about the NATO candidates Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, whose position is different from that of the Baltic states.36 The domestic policy of these countries is developing in a somewhat turbulent and incalculable way despite the formally correct democratically performed election procedures. In the second half of the nineties, Albania took a special position among the CEE countries and kept it during the Kosovo crisis in 1999. The remaining post-Communist countries (post-Soviet and post- Yugoslav) form a complicated and heterogeneous group. Slovakia's position has differed from both groups. On the basis of good macro-economic results in the years 1995 - 1997, Slovakia belonged to the first group; domestic political developments, however, put it in the second group, in particular with Romania and with the group, in which we can include Serbia and Croatia; whereas the foreign policy resembled that of Bulgaria.37 Owing to the present position of Slovakia in the Central European region and owing to the evolution of the security orientation, the following alternatives to treat this question can be considered. Alternative Ab. 7: to continue the endeavor of the Slovak Republic (SR) to enter the Atlantic Alliance. Even after the SR was not mentioned preferably in Washington in April 1999, the standpoint of the SR remains unchanged in the sense of the accomplishment of the "Government program of the Slovak Republic"38 - the endeavor to enter the Atlantic Alliance in the process of NATO enlargement. The Slovak Republic supports the standpoints which are based on the prospect of its membership, as the basic 36 The outcome position of the Baltic states vis □ vis the EU is more favorable than the position of the South-Eastern postcommunist Europeans. NATO- integration, however, is probably less probable. 37 Pantev, P.: Security for South Eastern Europe: Bulgaria Conference paper (free to quote), Munich, September 1995. 38 Renewed by the Government of M. Dzurinda at the end of 1998. Security Policy of the Slovak Republic 201
