Slovakia's Armed Forces deployed more than 4,500 of its members to tasks during the country's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2016, TASR learnt from Defence Ministry spokesperson Danka Capáková on Tuesday. "Military police officers coordinated despatchers and minivan drivers and, together with Interior Ministry units, they were involved in the protection and transport of officials, while also performing other tasks. A total of 130 military police officers were deployed, putting in over 9,000 working hours and racking up close to 60,000 kilometres on the road," said the spokesperson.
The ministry organised an informal meeting of the defence ministers of EU-member countries in Bratislava in September, as well as a number of other events. Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš (Slovak National Party/SNS) recognised the fact that no unforeseen occurrences disrupted the course of events. "We handled our first ever presidency very well and, as far as issues concerning the Defence Ministry went, we made significant progress. I highly appreciate the fact that High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attended the informal meeting in Bratislava. And we followed up on previously discussed topics at a meeting in Brussels in November," said Gajdoš.
The minister went on to thank all those involved for their competent handling of their work. "Slovakia proved that it's a full-fledged member of the European Union and that we're capable of coping extraordinarily well with such difficult tasks," he added.
