Country Overview
Overview of U.S. Government Assistance
In FY 2005, the USG allocated an estimated $13.86 million in assistance to Slovakia:
In FY 2005, a total of 69 Slovaks traveled to the United States on USG-funded exchange programs.
The last year for new SEED bilateral funding to Slovakia was FY 2000, although some additional SEED funds for public diplomacy and Democracy Commission grants were provided through FY 2003. Other forms of U.S. Government (USG) assistance to Slovakia continued through FY 2005.
Country Facts
FY 2005 Assistance Overview
U.S. STRATEGIC INTERESTS
Since the formation of a pro-reform coalition in 1998, the Slovak Republic has become a truly democratic society with a market economy, and a participant in Western economic and security institutions. Slovakia lies at the center of Europe, and its population includes about 500,000 people of Hungarian ethnicity, a Roma population estimated at nearly 8 percent of the total population, and small numbers of Czechs, Ukrainians and Ruthenians. The Slovaks participate in several United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Kosovo and Bosnia. Active in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), Slovakia maintains engineers in Afghanistan contributing to reconstruction and demining and a demining unit in Iraq, and has committed to training Iraqi officials and police officers. Slovakia became a member of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) in 2004, and from January 2006 through December 2007 has a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
KEY ISSUES
Slovakia's significant reforms of past years have forged it into a stable democracy and removed the need for most U.S. Government (USG) assistance. In 2005, the country held regional elections where Roma candidates campaigned seriously for the first time, though none was elected. The economy continued to grow at a substantial pace in 2005 though it does still have problematic regional disparities, high unemployment at around 11 percent, and lingering problems with corruption and lack of transparency. Slovakia still faced significant humanitarian and social reform challenges in FY 2005. Roma communities, for instance, continued to battle with poverty and high unemployment. As a result, USG assistance maintained support for the integration of Roma into Slovak society. U.S. military assistance also continued in 2005, which enabled Slovakia to continue its military reforms and professionalization of its forces to meet NATO standards.
FY 2005 Country Program Performance
Democratic Reform
Slovakia has become a stable democracy and is now even beginning to export its own experience to other nations including Iraq, Ukraine, Belarus, and countries of the Balkans. Nevertheless, small changes are still ongoing, including work on judicial reform, participatory democracy, and anti-corruption. Slovakia's commitment to these reforms remains robust.
U.S. ASSISTANCE PRIORITIES
USG assistance no longer focuses on promoting democratic reform in Slovakia. Slovakia has graduated to a stable democracy and is now working to share its expertise abroad. Slovakia did continue judicial reform efforts which have sped up trials and introduced a special court to fight corruption. Slovakia also held regional elections in 2005 where Roma candidates ran professional campaigns for the first time, though none were successful.
Economic Reform
Slovakia introduced few economic reforms in FY 2005 after passing significant reforms in previous years. The economy has continued to expand rapidly with a GDP increase of 5.5 percent in 2005. In addition, much of the growth was a result of increased consumer spending and rising exports, in lieu of government spending. In fact, Slovakia has shown significant fiscal restraint, decreasing its deficit to 3.4 percentof GDP and entering the "euro waiting zone," or European Rate Mechanism, in 2005. Foreign companies have continued to invest in Slovakia with approximately $421 million invested in the first three quarters of 2005. Since 1998, cumulative foreign direct investment has increased almost sevenfold to $12.7 billion at the end of the first three quarters of 2005. The Government of Slovakia (GOS) remained committed to solving lingering challenges to the economy by maintaining inflation and the currency at stable rates and improving transparency in state aid to foreign investors.
U.S. ASSISTANCE PRIORITIES
USG assistance no longer focuses on promoting economic reform in Slovakia. Slovakia has developed its own stable economy and considerable expertise on economic reform. In FY 2005, Slovakia introduced new rules for state aid to foreign investors that increased transparency and simplified the process for doing business in Slovakia.
Social Reform and Humanitarian Assistance
After extensive reforms in the social, economic, and health sectors, the social situation of Slovaks in the first half of 2005 improved slightly. The share of the total population living under the poverty line and receiving welfare payments decreased by 0.3 percent to 7.1 percent. Regional disparities, however, continued be a problem. Unemployment in Bratislava remained low, around 2.5 percent, while in eastern regions it was as high as 25 percent. Still, the nominal average wage in Slovakia rose in the first half of 2005 by 9.1 percent and the real wage increased by 6.2 percent. Social and economic reforms had the most serious impact on the Roma minority. The GOS prepared a strategy and took steps to improve their standard of living; although progress was made, most problems lingered.
U.S. ASSISTANCE PRIORITIES
USG assistance focused on addressing the situation of the Roma minority in southern and eastern Slovakia via the SEED-funded regional Roma Integration Program (RIP).
PROGRAM PERFORMANCE
In Slovakia, the RIP operated simultaneously at the community, national, and regional levels promoting Roma and non-Roma participation in cooperative decision-making, conflict prevention and resolution, increased leadership and advocacy skills, expansion of Roma access to services, reduced discriminatory attitudes and practices towards the Roma, creation of sustainable structures to improve majority-minority relations, and the creation of integration models that can be replicated in Central and Southeastern Europe.
The program was well received by the Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities and functioned well at both local and national levels. Numerous micro-grants were issued for local initiatives by both Roma and non-Roma and included cost-sharing by local governments. At the national level, the program changed GOS policies by institutionalizing field social workers. Further changes to the educational system were also planned.
Security, Regional Stability, and Law Enforcement
The Slovak military actively participated in several NATO and UN peacekeeping operations. During FY 2005, USG assistance encouraged Slovakia to contribute more effectively to regional stability and the GWOT. The United States encouraged Slovakia's efforts to share its success in democracy building and civil society development with other countries in transition.
In Afghanistan, the Slovaks deployed construction engineers to Bagram Air Field. In addition, 17 Slovak engineers served under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Slovakia also pledged $40 million worth of military equipment for donation to the Afghan National Army.
The Slovaks have a demining company in Iraq with an open-ended mandate, and four police trainers training Iraqi policemen in Jordan. Sixteen Iraqi Military Police also received six weeks of training in Slovakia at the end of 2005. Slovakia has diplomatic representation in Baghdad and cooperates with the NGO sector to help build democratic institutions in Iraq. Most recently, the Slovak government invited 30 Iraqi civil servants and NGO representatives to intern in various equivalent positions in Slovakia. The GOS drew on its first-hand knowledge of democratic transitions to advise the Iraqis on building a representative government. The Slovaks contributed $52,000 to a trust fund for NATO activities in Iraq, and planned to assign five soldiers to the NATO Training Mission. In addition, the Slovaks sought to donate excess military property to the Iraqi military.
U.S. ASSISTANCE PRIORITIES
Military aid programs promoted sound defense reform, with a focus on more mobile, better-trained and equipped force. USG-funded exchanges addressed law enforcement issues and increased awareness of NATO structures. The USG continued to provide Slovakia with export control training and equipment to enhance border security. Since Partnership for Peace (PFP) funds ended in FY 2004, Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Educational Training (IMET) programs have become the most crucial mechanisms for the United States to support the modernization and reform of Slovakia's Armed Forces.
PROGRAM PERFORMANCE
Slovakia was a committed partner in the GWOT, with troops in NATO, EU, and Coalition operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. Slovakia also contributed to global UN peacekeeping, meeting reform goals such as the consolidation of its military service academies, graduating several classes of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from the NCO Academy, and completing the transition to a professional, voluntary, military force (all conscriptions ceased in 2005). As reforms progressed and Slovakia's capabilities improved, FMF and IMET funding decreased in FY 2005. In FY 2005, Slovakia was allocated $4.96 million in FMF and $900,000 in IMET. They continued to use these funds effectively in the acquisition of equipment that boosted their NATO interoperability and upgraded their training and simulation equipment.
In FY 2005, FMF and IMET funded a variety of programs that focused on defense reform, unit readiness, and development of Slovakia's niche capabilities, which helped the Slovaks to meet their goal of force modernization, NATO interoperability, and continued Slovak assistance in the GWOT. Specific FMF projects included: nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) consequence-management capability; search and rescue capability (including night-vision equipment); communications equipment; in-country English language training; defense reform consultants; and instrumentation for a national maneuver training area. IMET assistance focused on officer and NCO training, the reorganization of the officer andNCO corps along Western lines through professional military education courses, English language training, technical training, and the development of mobile training teams to train large numbers of military and defense personnel.
Through IMET in FY2005, Slovakia sent students to courses at a number of U.S. military and defense-related institutions, including the Army and Air Force War Colleges. The country focused its IMET resources on junior and mid-career leaders to increase the professionalism of its military. In addition, IMET funds were also used for the training and development of the NCO Corps. The transition to a volunteer force plus widespread international coalition and NATO peace missions continued to drive the Slovak military to seek more IMET opportunities which, in turn, helped its public image and recruiting efforts. In a FY 2005 public opinion poll, the Slovak military was perceived as the most trusted institution of the GOS.
In the law enforcement sector, export and border security assistance to Slovakia increased to $550,000 for equipment and training in FY2005. The bulk of the funds was used to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, as well as for the interdiction of other weapons. The United States provided Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Projects (NADR)-funded Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) assistance to help Slovakia strengthen its export control system. This was particularly crucial as Slovakia will soon join the EU's Schengen zone (by accession to the Schengen Protocol to the Treaty of Amsterdam), and its eastern border will become, with Hungary and Poland, the last fully controlled border-crossing between Ukraine and 20 or more EU Member States.
Click for FY 2005 Funds Budgeted for U.S. Government Assistance to Slovakia [PDF format]
