The German President Köhler on a Working Visit to the Slovak Republic

President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Kőhler with his wife and delegation visited the Slovak Republic. The partners talked about internal policies of both countries, EU topics as well as globalization issues. Further, they discussed reforms, and transformation and integration processes, whereby President Ivan Gašparovič thanked the German party for its support of our integration efforts at the time of Slovakia’s preparation to join the EU and NATO. Ivan Gašparovič thanked also for backing our reform steps. He underlined that Germany is one of the major investors and business partners of Slovakia. The presidential partners did not avoid, either, the topic of the future of the Constitutional Treaty for Europe or the conditions of accepting new EU member states. The Presidents agreed that the EU must unequivocally and specifically set conditions and methods of control.
In his speech, Horst Kőhler appreciated the quality of Slovak-German relations and the Slovak membership in both structures, the EU and NATO. He emphasized the challenges and success of the reform measures and the dynamics of the economic growth. In connection with the issue of the European constitution, both Presidents agreed on the need to analyze successes and failures of approving the Euro-constitution in particular EU member states. The German President clearly referred to the EU as a successful community which is worthy of being developed and raised to a community where a European social model can be built up in the environment of mutual respecting small and big countries. Both presidents spoke also about tax systems, while Ivan Gašparovič called the Slovak tax system and the flat tax one of the methods to make the economy more dynamic and to get it closer to the developed economies of the EU. Horst Kőhler did not directly respond to the question of reviewing the transitional period for a free movement of the labour force from the new EU member states as, in his opinion, foreign investments come to Slovakia, which supports the increase in new job opportunities, and consequently also opportunities for Slovaks to get employed in Slovakia.