The Slovak political scene should be honest and self-critical following the historically lowest turnout in recent elections to the European Parliament (EP), Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák said in his speech at the conference: 'The EU in 2014 - New Institutions New Reform?'.
This international conference took place in Bratislava at the end of last week. Reacting to the 13% turnout in the last EP elections in Slovakia, Lajčák claims that even after 10 years of the EU membership, the whole Slovak political scene has been failing to bring European issues closer to Slovak citizens, convince them that the European elections matter and explain the impact of European decision-making on state legislation. “It's apparent that our citizens still feel they have no impact on what’s happening in Brussels,” added Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák.
Taking part at the conference was also European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič. He stated that internal migration must become one of the priority issues for the new European Commission. According to him, the topic of migration played a key role in election victories of Eurosceptic parties in the UK and France and he claims populists exploit fear of the unknown as well as the frustration and disappointment of the population with local political elites. However, according to Šefčovič the free movement of people is one of the fundamental values of the European Union and that must be respected. Another priority issue according to Šefčovič is the high unemployment among the young Europeans.
