10th anniversary of the accession of Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the European Union brought the opportunity to recapitulate the current developments in two countries, which are connected by ties originated in the past, during the common Czechoslovak state, as well as by the numerous European challenges.

Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) and the Prague office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation used this opportunity and released the publication dealing with various aspects of EU membership in important areas of public life in two neighboring countries, including democracy and the rule of law, human and minority rights, civil society, social integration of migrants, the debate on European issues, look to the future of the EU.

What happened in the Czech Republic and Slovakia after joining the EU? How did the membership in EU affected people’s daily lives, functioning of the democratic institutions, the situation in the area of human and minority rights, civil society development, people’s feelings of belonging to Europe? Are two our countries today more free, open and prosperous? What did citizens expect from the membership in EU and how their expectations fulfilled in reality? Are European issues and values today closer to ordinary citizens than 10 years ago? If people’s trust to the EU and its particular institutions is still so high as it was before, why then the voter turnout in elections to European parliament is so low? Which visions of the future EU development are likely to be supported by political elites and citizens of the Czech Republic and Slovakia?

Answers to all these and other related questions could be found by readres in the book Ten Years in the Union: Slovak and Czech Way (Desať rokov v Únii: Slovenská a česká cesta) released in November 2014.

The book was presented in specially organized events in Bratislava (November 14, 2014 in Goethe Institute) and in Prague (December 1, 2014 in cultural center Era svět). The first copies of the publication were distributed between participants of the workshop held in the office of the Representation of European Commission in Slovakia (November 3, 2014).

Book free download : Desať rokov v únii. Slovenská a česká cesta (pdf)

Photo


Presentation of the book in Bratislava. From the left: Michal Hvorecký (moderator), Oľga Gyárfášová (author), Grigorij Mesežnikov (author and editor), Jarmila Lajčáková (author).