When evaluating the outgoing Government's term in office [2012-16], the Foreign Affairs Minister, Miroslav Lajčák, has told TASR that his ministry has focused on results rather than dramatic gestures and loud words. He considers Slovakia's 2014-15 Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) presidency to have been a success and broached Slovakia's aid to Ukraine with reforms and reverse gas flows. As part of the European agenda, Lajčák pointed to preparations for the first-ever Slovak EU Presidency (slated for the second half of 2016), which have been under way since as early as July 2012. The presidency is the upcoming period's top priority, a watershed that will complete Slovakia's European integration.
"I think that Slovakia will be well prepared, although much depends on post-election developments," claims the chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, František Šebej (from the opposition MOST-HÍD party). According to Šebej, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is managed in a professional fashion and that stances adopted by Slovak diplomacy on fundamental issues don't leave much room for criticism. However, some of the public statements made by the Government, and especially PM Robert Fico have created the impression that Slovakia has two contradicting foreign affairs policies. In Šebej 's view, the complaint filed by Slovakia against the EU's mandatory migrant resettlement quotas represents an ill-advised diplomatic failure.
