Entry into the European Union

The prime minister of the Slovak Republic, Vladimír Mečiar, applied to join the European Union (EU) in June, 1995 [Slovak Republic, 2015].  All countries attempting to join the EU must follow a threefold of conditions, known as the accession, including the demonstration of democracy and consistent laws protecting and respecting the human rights of minority groups [European Commission, 2016].  The 1995 Slovak State Language Law mandated that all official business, signs, and documents be in Slovak, directly contradicting the EU thresholds, denying as it did the right to other languages [Davies and Dubinsky, 2017]. Outcry over the restrictive law led to Mečiar’s candidacy request being rejected in 1997. Still motivated to join the EU, Slovakia passed a law in 1999 that reversed some, but not all, of the 1995 rules against minority languages; now, for example, government documentation could be provided in non-Slovak languages, but little was done to actively promote the use of these languages [Davies and Dubinsky, 2017].  While still problematic, the law was in accordance with the threshold criteria and Slovakia was invited to summit negotiations in December of 1999 to join the EU. On 1 May, 2004 Slovakia became the 23^rd member of the EU [Slovak Republic, 2015].