DIPLOMACY ДИПЛОМАЦИЯ

THE SLOVAK PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION...
strategy in the context of Fico’s winning the general elections in Slovakia in March, 2016. In
August, 2016, however, in his speech before the European Parliament, he made a tangible
effort to get out of this image. By admitting that the Slovak Council Presidency is inevitably
going to take place “in the shadow of Brexit”, he also said: “The European Union is an amazing
and unique project. This project has brought peace and prosperity to a continent that had
been deteriorated by wars”. And then he added: “I am proud that Slovakia has been part and
parcel of this project”. 5 According to Robert Fico, the European Union has to combat the
ever growing separatism, populism, and nationalism because a strong Europe is not only in
Brussels’ interest – it is in the interest of us all. Later on, at a press conference, organized
jointly with the President of the European Parliament, Fico declared: “If we do no manage to
decide, in the following five or six months, how the European Union will have to operate from
now on, we are bound to find ourselves in a situation in which every country will be insisting
on … a referendum of its own”. 6
Fico underlined further that the advantages of the European project should be made
more understandable to the European citizens. However, if this could really happen, the
European Union will have to bring down to a minimum its own bureaucracy and elitism by
focusing on the common projects that have been agreed upon by the individual Member
States. It is the need for a consensus of this kind that has made the Slovak Council Presidency
convene the informal meeting of the Heads of State and Government in Bratislava.
This meeting is expected to focus on all kind of topics, but chiefly on the European future
without Great Britain.
Fico also asserted that the major objective of the informal Bratislava Summit, which
had been scheduled for September 16, 2016, should be to try and avoid to a maximum
any extreme visions about the way in which the EU should go on functioning from now on.
We need to underline, however, that, in this case, he dissociated himself from the extreme
“Visegrad Four” position on this issue, as well as from the Polish appeals that the European
Commission has to be isolated from any Brexit crisis-associated decisions because these
decisions’ initiative should be left in the hands of the EU Member States. In addition, Fico’s
assertion had come in collision with the opinion of the Slovak Foreign Minister, Miroslav
Lajcak. Mr. Lajcak has been sharing the view that there has been a general feeling among
the EU Member States that, whenever they manage to come to an agreement, the European
Commission will inevitably interfere with all kinds of new proposals, contrary to what has just
been agreed upon. He also thinks that the EU citizens are becoming less aware of what the
European Union has been doing. And he attributes this fact to the “too many institutions and
the very few Member States”.
The Bratislava Summit – searching for the proper EU road map
Prior to the summit in Bratislava, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council,
underlined in a letter, addressed to the Heads of State and Government, that the European
Union is faced up with an unprecedented situation in which one of the EU Member States
has expressed its desire to withdraw from the European community. Moreover, this has
taken place as a result of a national referendum. In his letter, Tusk also underlined that
“the Brexit campaign had abounded with false arguments and unacceptable generalizations.
However, it is also a fact that the vote during the referendum had been a desperate attempt
5 Robert Fico’s speech during a European Parliament plenary session – August 3, 2016, Strasbourg.
6 The debate with Prime Minister Fico about the Slovak Council Presidency – July 5, 2016.
DIPLOMACY 18/2016
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