Hard Brexit would be tough for Slovakia

Slovakia would be one of the economies most affected by a hard Brexit, which is the departure of the UK from the EU without any agreement, said Slovak MEP Ivan Štefanec. He added that according to analyses, the impact on Slovakia would be the fourth worst within the EU. "Whether the UK eventually leaves the EU or not, Brexit has certainly strengthened the unity of the European community," stated another Slovak MEP Vladimír Maňka. Štefanec agrees with Maňka saying that this is a lesson that populism is a dead end offering no solutions but only chaos," he said. Brexit and Slovakia's presidency of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are the main topics which the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák should discuss during his Monday visit of the UK. Lajčák has a meeting with his counterpart Jeremy Hutton as well as with the UK's Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan on the schedule.