Czechoslovakia's division -- equal partnership ten years later.

(From Czech News Agency)

PRAGUE, Dec 1 (CTK) - After ten years of independent existence the Czech Republic and Slovakia are two sovereign countries following their own ways, but with evidently similar destinations.

The two countries are seen abroad as democratic countries successfully integrating themselves into European, Euro-Atlantic and global structures. Though each with its own pace, the two countries will be in a few years both members of NATO and the EU. As a result, sooner or later their joint border will become just history.

At the Copenhagen summit on December 12-13 the Czech Republic and Slovakia will be invited to join the EU and the entry is to materialise along with other countries in May 2004. However, their way to the EU has differed. Although Slovakia submitted an application sooner (in June 1995) than the Czech Republic (in January 1996), the latter country was originally in the first group of candidates and Slovakia in the second.

The differences in this respect were removed by the Helsinki summit in December 1999. At that time the Czech Republic had already started EU accession talks (in March 1998) and Slovakia had to wait till February 2000. In the current, final state of talks the Czech Republic has preliminarily closed 26 chapters of EU legislation and Slovakia 28 out of 30.

If Slovaks could feel some lagging behind Czechs, it was certainly in connection with the membership of NATO. The Madrid summit in July 1997 decided that unlike the Czech Republic, Slovakia would not be among the countries which enlarged NATO in the wave in March 1999. The reasons were not military, but political, connected with the rule of former premier Vladimir Meciar.

Since the "poor democratic record" under Meciar (1993-1998) in Slovakia was eliminated by the cabinet of Premier Mikulas Dzurinda over the past four years, Slovakia's NATO bid could only be threatened by "the Meciar threat" before the September elections. Since he did not form a cabinet after them, Slovakia, too, was invited to NATO at its Prague summit.