CANDIDATE STATES/Denis Staunton on Slovakia: The fleshy features of Slovakia's former prime minister, Mr Vladimir Meciar, still adorn walls and lampposts in the centre of Bratislava. But after last month's election victory for the centre-right coalition of Mr Mikulas Dzurinda, the volatile Mr Meciar appears to have been consigned to Slovakia's political past.
Mr Dzurinda's victory is good news for Slovaks who want to join the EU because Brussels had made clear that Mr Meciar's return to power could wreck the country's chances of EU membership.
Mr Meciar led Slovakia into international isolation during his three terms as prime minister during the 1990's with undemocratic and corrupt policies.
Dr Grigorij Meseznikov, president of Slovakia's Institute for Public Affairs, believes that Mr Meciar's defeat removes one of the last obstacles to Slovakia's accession to the EU. "It's the end of the political problems. The continuation of this pro-European government should ensure that the completion of the negotiations is a technical rather than a political matter," he said.
It was not until 2000 that Slovakia started negotiations to join the EU, two years after its neighbours.
The country was also left out of the first wave of NATO enlargement, although it hopes to be invited to join the alliance next month.
Mr Eric van der Linden, the head of the European Commission's delegation in Bratislava, believes that Slovakia's late start in EU negotiations has turned out to be an advantage. "They were able to watch the Czechs for two years and to see what mistakes they made in negotiations. They did not have to go through the same pitfalls again and that helped them to catch up. This country is a good example of the proper functioning of the catching up system," he said.
Mr van der Linden acknowledges that Slovakia needs to improve the quality of its public administration and that the judiciary and the police are in need of reform. But he argues that reforms will be easier to achieve once Slovakia has actually joined the EU.
Dr Meseznikov believes that Slovakia has much to offer the EU in terms of "social capital" - a young, well-educated, mobile population. But he is concerned that a second Irish rejection of the Nice Treaty could delay Slovakia's accession to the EU and suggests that Slovaks are bewildered by Irish opposition to the treaty.
"One explanation for the last vote was that the Irish Government was not very efficient at campaigning. "Another was that it was an expression of the egocentric approach of a member-state which has used the advantages of EU membership but is reluctant to share those advantages with others," he said.
He rejects the argument that, by rejecting the Nice Treaty, Ireland is helping to ensure that the EU Slovakia joins will be more democratic and will not be dominated by larger member-states.
"It's possible to have enlargement and to make the EU more democratic too. We want to be in the EU so that we can play a full part in the debate about how to reform the EU. For us, the argument that voting No to Nice is doing us a favour is not acceptable," he said.