Most Slovaks have not changed their opinion regarding the EU after the Slovak presidency of the EU Council, which took place in the second half of 2016, says a survey conducted by the Focus agency as reported by public broadcaster RTVS on Monday. Slovak diplomacy intended to take advantage of the six month reign of the EU's 28 to improve the Union's image. However, as Radovan Geist of the Euraktiv.sk portal said, this goal turned out to be unrealistic.
"Those people who had had a positive relationship to the EU before, mostly said that the presidency improved their positive perception the Union, however improvement did not occur among those who had had negative or neutral relationship,"
said Geist. As the survey also indicates, more than 63% of respondents think that Slovakia's role was rather administrative and organisational and did not perceive it as a chance to push the country's priorities ahead. Radovan Geist of the Euraktiv.sk portal agrees with this view.
"This is a very realistic perception of what presidency should be. If you take this perspective, then Slovakia did fulfil the task of the presiding country, because the presidency is definitely not about pushing national interests ahead,"
explained Geist. As the results of the survey say, more than half of respondents do not think that Slovak citizens and the civic society contributed to the presidency. On the other hand, as many as 60% of Slovaks feel that the country managed to make itself better known.
