Year 2006

The President of the Slovak Republic Received Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tony Blair

President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič met Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tony Blair during his official visit to the Slovak Republic. At the meeting, the British Prime Minister highlighted the very good and partnership-based successful cooperation of the Slovak Republic within the structures of the EU and NATO. Tony Blair said the Slovak Republic, though a young democratic state, is a reliable partner of superpowers in the area of international affairs and also as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

During their talks, President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič thanked the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the support in the process of integrating the Slovak Republic in the international structures.

The talks included also the political and economic situation. As one of the most important issues, the British Prime Minister mentioned the energy policy of the EU, in particular regarding the future of the European Union. In this connection, the partners discussed the European constitution and its future development. Speaking about this, President Ivan Gašparovič expressed his opinion of the need to use the existing experience with approving the Euro-constitution and consequent generating a new Euro-constitutional document. As for the new Euro-constitutional document, President Ivan Gašparovič supports the position that its priorities should include issues related to solving economic and social situation of citizens living in the European Union countries. As President Ivan Gašparovič said, the new document should have a character of treaty, rather than constitution, while such a treaty would define also position of national parliaments towards the European Parliament.

International topics of the talks included the situation in Iraq, and future measures of the coalition forces for the sake of building security and democracy in this country. In this connection, the President of the Slovak Republic presented the British Prime Minister a proposal to find a possible solution based on a joint agreement of the coalition on a further action in Iraq, being different from the present individual and unsatisfactorily coordinated moves of the coalition forces. The British Prime Minister appreciated very much the participation of Slovak soldiers in the operation in Iraq. „By its undeterred posture, Slovakia has become a strong and reliable partner,” said Tony Blair.

On the occasion of the official visit of the British Prime Minister to Slovakia, the President of the Slovak Republic extended an invitation for Queen Elisabeth to pay an official visit to the Slovak Republic.