At midnight on 31 December 1992, two separate countries were established: the Czech and the Slovak Republic.
This was after 74 years, two months and three days of the existence of Czechoslovakia, a common state of Czechs and Slovaks. This year, Slovakia marks 31 years since its establishment.
The first of January is commemorated in Slovakia as a public holiday - the Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic.
The establishment of the independent republics was preceded by the approval of the Constitutional Act on the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. It was adopted by the Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic on 25 November 1992 and came into force at midnight from 31 December 1992 to 1 January 1993.
The willingness to agree on the division of the federation was expressed by the winners of the 1992 parliamentary elections - the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).
The final decision for the dissolution of the federation was reached in August 1992 in Brno, Czech Republic, in the garden of the Villa Tugendhat by the premiers of the two federate states Vladimir Meciar, for the Slovak part, and Vaclav Klaus, for the Czech part (on the photo). Subsequently, the Constitution of the Slovak Republic was adopted on 1 September 1992.
Already during the first day of the independence, Slovakia was diplomatically recognised by 93 states of the world, among them the United States, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and China.
In the first days of January 1993, the Slovak Republic became a member of the World Bank, the United Nations and UNESCO. A couple of months later, the newly establish country joined the Council of Europe.
The first President of the Slovak Republic was Michal Kováč, at that time elected by the parliament. Nowadays, the head of state is elected in direct election by the citizens.
The Slovak Republic became a NATO an EU member state in 2004. It joined the Schengen in 2007 and introduced the euro as its currency in 2009.
(RTVS)
