Mikuláš Dzurinda was twice the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic – from 1998 and from 2002. In his New Year’s address in 1999, he said: “This is the year in which the European Union will decide on what countries it will invite for accession talks. Our neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary along with another 3 countries have received an invitation and have already started discussions. It is clear that 1999 offers our country probably the last chance to catch the European integration train.”
The then-prime minister alluded to the previous pause in accession talks caused by the corruption of his predecessor, Vladimír Mečiar. After a change of government in 1998, the adoption of anti-corruption legislation, and meeting the necessary financial criteria, Slovakia joined the European Union on May 1, 2004 during the largest EU enlargement in history.
Where were you on May 2, 2004? Hard to remember? Martina Greňová Šimkovičová was on a boat to the EU, reporting on the British media's fear of workers from Central European countries like Slovakia flooding in and taking advantage of the free labour market. As the English section of Radio Slovakia International was then part of Insight Central Europe, an international project of the ORF (Austria), Radio Prague (Czechia), Radio Budapest (Hungary) and Radio Polonia (Poland), the feature is introduced by the ORF's Kerry Skyring.
By boat to the EU
Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
