One OF the consequences of the collapse of Soviet-style communism is that the term "Central Europe" has gone very much out of fashion. In the days of East-West tension and nuclear standoff it was a useful description of a region which, though imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain, was considered to be psychologically and culturally part of the West. The Free World had failed to go to war over Czechoslovakia in 1938 and still felt guilty about it.
These feelings were renewed when the West stood idly by as the tanks of the Warsaw Pact countries rolled in during August 1968 to end the brief period of civil liberty and political freedom usually known as the Prague Spring.
At last the West had a chance to do the decent thing when the collapse of the Berlin Wall was accompanied by Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution". There was a great deal of heady rhetoric about embracing our newly-liberated brothers and sisters from Central Europe.
If you had dared to predict at the time that, 12 years on, they would still be knocking on Europe's door, you would have been dismissed as a killjoy. Instead of integration there has been disintegration, with the break-up of the Czechoslovak federation into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics on New Year's Eve 1992.
The Czechs have long been in the front line of well-regarded European applicants but their erstwhile federation partners slipped behind for a while. Their progress in Brussels was not helped by the image of Vladimir Meciar, a former boxer who was prime minister of the newly-independent republic until October 1998 and was seen as another post-Soviet nationalist strongman. The diplomatic low-point came when, as US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said that "on the map of Europe there is a hole called Slovakia".
The coalition of disparate parties which took over from Meciar moved rapidly to make up lost ground and formally began negotiations last March to join the European Union. Already 10 of the 29 negotiating chapters have been closed and negotiations in a further six are in progress. The new government under Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda - a marathon-runner had taken over from the boxer - has promoted economic reform and sought to reverse the country's poor record in attracting foreign investment, even taking a leaf out of Ireland's book by reducing corporation tax from 40 down to 29 per cent. Another feature of the Slovak economy is its well-educated but relatively low-paid workforce.
Slovakia is part of the Visegrad Group, an informal alliance with Poland, Hungary and the Czechs. At a summit meeting in Pszczyna in southern Poland a fortnight ago, President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland, Hungary's Ferenc Madl, the Czech President, Vaclav Havel and Slovakia's Rudolf Schuster, declared their intention to work together to secure EU membership. Slovakia seeks also to join the other Visegrad states in NATO.
A Slovak parliamentary delegation paid a two-day visit to Ireland last month to strengthen relations with members of the Oireachtas and promote Slovakia's EU aspirations. The delegation was here at the invitation of Mr Bernard Durkan, chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs, who visited the country's capital, Bratislava, in December 1999.
The leader of the Slovak group was Mr Frantisek Sebej who, in addition to being chairman of the parliament's committee on European Integration, is also in line this very weekend to become leader of the centreright Democratic Party.
Mr Sebej told me he was hopeful that during the current European presidency, which is held by Sweden, negotiations would be opened on all remaining chapters and that the finishline in these talks would be reached by the end of 2002. A referendum will be required to complete Slovak accession and if this is successful - opinion polls are very favourable - Slovakia will be ready for membership at the end of 2003 and could, in principle, take part in the next European Parliament elections in 2004.
A psychologist by training, Mr Sebej is concerned about the effect delays in accession might have on opinion both in candidate-countries like his own and within the EU. Already, he said, some shades of the political spectrum in Austria and Germany were playing up what he considers irrational fears of a large-scale influx of cheap labour from central and east European countries once they are admitted to the EU.
"We would like to go faster," he said. He notes that some of the existing member-states do not meet all of the conditions that are required of the applicants: "But actually I don't mind because in the negotiating process we are not asking for any exceptions."
In some instances, however, the Slovaks want more time to fulfil the criteria. "We are asking in some chapters for transitional periods, let's say environment. It is not that we are not willing to meet the criteria but it means billions and billions of investment we do not have at the moment."
The delegation also met officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Bilateral relations are good: a Slovak embassy was opened in Dublin in April 1998; Brian Cowen visited the country last April, there was a subsequent visit by Mary Harney in June and there have been a number of visits from senior Slovakian politicians. The Irish community in Slovakia numbers only about 30 although there is the inevitable Irish pub, "The Dubliner", in Bratislava.
Europe appears to be finally opening its doors to Mitteleuropa. Initial hesitation on the part of the Slovaks has not helped their case. If we see the post-communist part of Europe taking to the hustings in three years' time we will know that the bright hopes of 1989 and surrounding years have not been quenched after all.