Re: "Slovakia confident after EU accession progress report", By Martina Pisárová, Vol. 8 No. 24, June 24-30, 2002
If one just takes the trouble to study the map of central Europe, one can see that the EU-Schengen borders would be some 1,300 kilometres longer without Slovakia being included. And if one also takes into account the fact that the EU already has great difficulty getting Luxembourg, an EU member, to abolish its bank-secret laws (not to mention non-member Switzerland), it is unlikely that the EU would risk a possible Slovak bank-secret regime, aided perhaps by Luxembourg and Swiss banks, just because of the dislike of one man who is unknown to many EU politicians and most EU citizens.
I would say that Slovakia has a very good chance of being accepted by the EU indeed, regardless of who forms the next government.
Oscar Stolk
