Dutch politician Jan Marinus Wiersma - for many years a prominent member of the European Parliament and rapporteur on Slovakia before its accession - said Bratislava had suffered from a rather negative image under populist and autocratic Prime Minister Vladimir Mečiar (1993-1998). Fortunately, he said, after Mečiar lost the elections in 1998 it became possible for the EU to invite the country to start accession negotiations in 1999.
"The formal orientation of the leadership has also moved from Moscow to Brussels very clearly," Wiersma further recalled, admitting that there remain "some old links to Russia, Slavic links". But he said that generally the country had turned around and was now oriented towards Brussels, particularly as far as young people are concerned.
After Slovakia's EU accession in May 2004, Wiersma said doubts began to grow again as to whether the decision to take on board Slovakia was the right one, especially in 2006, when the current government led by the Smer party of Prime Minister Robert Fico formed a coalition with the Ján Slota-led SNS, an extremist and chauvinist party known for its anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma rhetoric.
At that time Smer, a young political party seeking recognition by the PES, had its application to join its European partners suspended over its relationship with SNS. Wiersma explained that the move was also designed to give a signal to Romania, where a similar risk of parties in power aligning with anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma extremists existed.
Wiersma further pointed to the fact that SNS did not became part of the far-right group in the European Parliament centred around Jean Marie Le Pen's Front National in 2007 (EurActiv 15/11/09).
The Dutch politician said that the EU was aware of the difficulties faced by acceding countries, which were even more acute in Bulgaria and Romania, but he still believed that the decision to go ahead with the enlargement was the right one.
"That was also a political decision in the end. I think we did the right thing at the right moment," Wiersma said.
"I can be more open now about the hesitations we had then, but if I would have expressed these hesitations then in my report to European Parliament - look they are not ready but we have to decide politically to do it - that would have been dangerous. It is a responsibility we have taken and I still defend it," the Dutch politician argued.
