A canvas promoting the European elections is seen on the European Parliament building on April 11, 2024 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (source: AP)
The European Council and the Council of the European Union are two different EU institutions, but people in Slovakia cannot tell the difference. Regardless, they trust them. They also trust European Union leaders, even though they do not know them well.
The European Union remains too complicated and distant for many people in the country, despite the fact that Slovakia joined the EU 20 years ago. Information about how the EU works has been incorporated into the curriculum only in recent years.
A recent NMS Market Research Slovakia poll shows that people are the most aware of the European Parliament of all EU bodies. But it is the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Prosecutor’s Office that people trust more, even if people are not as familiar with them as with the parliament.
Here’s another example: Only 10 percent of respondents knew the European Court of Auditors. It may have caught people’s attention in early 2023 when then Slovak lawmaker Martin Klus tried to become an auditor despite lacking the necessary qualifications in finances and audit. Nominated by the then Heger cabinet, the nomination was perceived as a political trade-off, since the offer came out of nowhere and at a time when the Heger administration no longer held a majority in parliament. The European Parliament did not approve the nomination. Today, auditor Katarína Kaszasová represents Slovakia in the European Court of Auditors, trusted by 63 percent of Slovak respondents.
