A common celebration of the founding of Czechoslovakia, cooperation regarding EU issues as well as continuing bilateral cooperation: these were the main topics of the joint meeting of the Slovak and Czech governments, which took place in Bratislava on Monday. As Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said, director of the Slovak institute in Prague, Vladimír Valovič will be the coordinator of the upcoming 100th anniversary of founding of Czechoslovakia and the 50th anniversary of the Prague Spring movement which lead to democratisation of Communism in the 1960's. The both celebrations will take place in 2018.
Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán showed interest in a new law against shell companies, which is currently being prepared by his Slovak counterpart Lucia Žitňanská. According to him, the Czech side will closely observe how its final version will work in real life. The Culture Ministers agreed on creating a permanent working group which should help both countries to push for their interests in the sphere of European financing for culture. The Economy Ministries postponed the signing of a memorandum on gas transport as its wording was mildly changed and ministers will return to it in the upcoming period.
The governments also discussed joint airspace defence for the two countries, which according to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka could be signed by the end of this year. "It's cheaper; we can focus on the joint repair of machines and the joint training of pilots," said Fico, highlighting the benefits of cooperation. However, he noted that all these decisions take time as in terms of politics, it's "a very difficult and sensitive decision".
The governments met at a joint session of this format for the fourth time since 2012. The next edition is set for 2017 in the Czech Republic.
