From the presentation by Vladimír Valach, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in France, at the 8th European colloquium entitled In the heart of Europe, organised by the Caen association for getting to know Germany, established in 1959. Ninety young people from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia participated in the meeting, devoted to the enlargment of the European Union.

The process of preparation for accession cannot only be a matter of the government and its specialised bodies, but above all the matter of all economic subjects and actors. It is a priority professed by both the coalition and the opposition, state administration as well as companies and the great majority of the population.

All the applicant countries are undergoing the process of transition, the differences are not only in their starting position and the intensity of preparation, but often also in the degree of misunderstanding in their mutual dialogue with EU representatives. Differences are also in how realistically the solved and the open problems can be recognised. Much has been done, but from the point of view of achieving the transition, many tasks still remain to be fulfilled.

Ambassador Valach divided the existing as well as potential trumps, the driving force of intense preparation of the Slovak Republic for EU accession, into ten groups.

1. Businesses and businessmen are among the most important driving force, the actors of the process of transition and of the whole preparation for the EU accession. Inevitably, right after the "velvet revolution" they had to pass through several stages of "purgatory" and face several shocks. The first shock for them was when they had to become "atheists", i. e. when they found out that "god" - the state planning commission - does not exist any more and that they themselves have to take care of their own survival, of being competitive. The second shock came when they had to reorient their export efforts from the Comecon to the demanding western markets. Another shock was the change in ownership relations, the move from levelling to differentiation, etc. Within the preparation for EU accession they have to adapt themselves to a two-way free movement of goods, services, capital and people.
2. Banks as allocators of financial resources have covered a considerable distance from the monopoly of one state-run bank to competition and the present variety of several forms of banks and bank products specialised not only according to the movement of goods, but also the movement of money, with instruments of securing oneself against risks. Risks in foreign markets in the present-day world are so high, so diverse, so unpredictable and so destructive, that even banks with good reputation in developed countries cannot always sustain them, as is witnessed by examples from Japan, South East Asia, Latin America and Europe. It has been shown that only banks which have fulfiled two basic conditions, namely having excellent management and excellent shareholders, can survive. Slovak banks have not yet managed to carry out all their tasks following from the transition process and at the same time they have to solve problems on the level of EU integration and also on other levels of globalisation trends in the world. This is compounded by occasional misunderstandings about the measure of responsibility of banks and financial institutions: it is true that banks are responsible for a lot, but not for everything. Let it be a good promise for our future that it is also in the banking sector in Slovakia that a new generation of modern managers and successful professionals has grown and that the presence of foreign capital in the banking sector has been putting an unrelenting pressure on all banks to be professional and to offer a wide range of banking products.
3. Foreign capital in the form of foreign direct investment in Slovakia in the amount of one billion US dollars has not yet exceeded the limit of the absorption capacity of the country. With regard to foreign capital we still encounter two opposing opinions and approaches. On the one hand there occur opinions that we will cope ourselves and so we do not need anyone's capital. On the other hand we encounter another extreme opinion that we can only be "saved" by foreign capital. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Foreign capital is beneficial where it brings new technologies and an influx of fresh financial resources and where there is a strong partner on the Slovak side, as can be seen on the example of the German Volkwagen in Bratislava or the French Rhone-Poulenc in Humenné in Eastern Slovakia. In any case, good joint ventures are an excellent laboratory for the preparation of human resources, management, working methods and efficiency and for the EU accession.
4. Cooperation with EU Member States makes it possible not only in the area of ordinary exchange of goods and production cooperation, but especially in the area of instruments, mechanisms and systems, to speed up the transition and preparation process for EU accession. For example that was, and is, the case with France - the founding of the Slovak Guarantee Bank to support the forming of small and medium-sized enterprises, Credit Lyonnais Bank Slovakia, the Association of company financial officers. It is according to the French model that the unemployed are being retrained, the state treasury organised, exports supported, regional policy, transport systems, local infrastructure, the approximation of the law carried out, etc.
5. Cooperation among the candidates for EU accession provides a number of opportunities which have been far from fully exploited. That is the direction of our initiatives within CEFTA, we still have reserves in the foreign trade exchange, in cooperation with neighbouring regions, in tourism, but also in ordinary exchange of information and the strengthening of our friendship. In this sense the France and Germany team is an excellent example for the whole of Europe. It is true that there has to be two-way, or multilateral and equal mutual willingness and initiative.
6. The process of transition does not only mean changes in the economy but also in the administration of public affairs, that is in democracy. After a period of several decades of deficit of democracy it is impossible to get rid of all the old habits and burdens across the whole system, the process is the slowest in thinking and psychology. However, we cannot relent in this effort. Pierre Pfimlin, former President of the European Parliament, who is already 90 today, said it nicely when he stressed that Europe is above all the Europe of common values, common culture of coexistence, enterprise, relations among people and values of life.
7. Closely connected with that is the achievement of a correct balance between patriotism and a feeling of belonging to Europe. The French and the Germans are good patriots, proud of their culture, architecture, history as well as sports clubs, which, however, does not prevent them from being the driving force behind European integration because they have understood that only in a united Europe will they be able to face the challenges of the 21st century. The new dimension of this approach was outlined as early as the beginning of the nineties by the governor of the Bank de France, who declared: "In connection with the integration processes the question no longer is independence, but interdependence."
8. Globalisation also helps the integration processes, although it may seem paradoxical at first sight. The present civilisation changes, their speed, depth and scope make it necessary to adapt the management strategy to existing changes. While in the 70s and 80s developed countries had to adapt and had to look for ways out of the deep first and second oil shock, above all by measures supporting exports and speeding up scientific and technological development, in the 90s of this century and the first decade of the future century the emphasis is put on adaptation and marked changes in the systems and institutions, and above all in the approaches and attitudes of individuals. Globalisation is at the same time accompanied by differentiation, in accordance with the willingness and ability of whole individual economies, companies and individuals to follow the speed of civilisation changes and to use their fruits.
9. Closely connected with all that is an intense process of the preparation of people for the changes which the EU accession will bring. Already today we have to welcome various seminars, colloquia, for example on EURO, on the status of regions, but also intensive language preparation, organising trips and friendly relations among towns and villages. For example the small town of Meudon near Paris where, starting from 1 May 1906, our Milan Rastislav Štefánik worked, has apart from its good relations with twin towns in the UK, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands also excellent cooperation with the central Slovakia town of Brezno. Similarly, people from Brittany like coming to Slovakia, while people from Bardejov, Považská Bystrica and Strečno like coming to Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany.
10. As a conclusion maybe the most optimistic and the most agreeable: we already have a young generation which has studied or has been working after 1989 and which is today a good guarantee of a successful preparation for the EU accession. Their good knowledge of languages, management, and modern habits as such will enable smooth adaptation and the gradual achievement of the level of their counterparts in EU Member States. Let us help, not hinder, the fulfilment of all the realistic and justified hopes of our young people.