New Euro Info center opens in Slovakia

Since 1998, the European Commission has been running a communication offensive to tell Slovak's what to expect when they're in the EU. But now that enlargement is just around the corner, the task of telling people about the EU has been passed to a newly opened government Euro Info Center.

Such a question is one of the most frequent ones that employees at the government Euro Info Centre are asked to deal with. Other frequent questions are those about structural funds and surprisingly, about how purchasing a car from abroad will change after May 1st. People I met at the EU Info Centre came there for these reasons:

Person 1:"...I wanted to find some information about the European Union, about jobs and ways how to find them in the UK..."

Person 2:"... I was came here looking for some information about possibilities of how to study abroad... "

Person 3:"...They gave me some information, some web sites where I can find a job when I come to England and some newspapers where are job offers..."

Most Slovaks certainly know what the letters E U stand for. Not surprising really, since information about the Union has been coming in from all sides - be it from Brussels, the government or NGOs - for more than 5 years now. Olga Darfasova, a sociologist at the Institute for Public Issues, says with having all the necessary information Slovaks have created a general perception of the Union.

"People perceive EU as an ultimate goal, so that means that the membership in the EU will strengthen the international position of Slovakia. EU is perceived as a picture we want to approach because it will eliminate the deficits we see in our country."

There are various reasons for this rather positive perception of the Union. One is the clear political will to enter the Union, and also because until 1998, the question for Slovakia was not so much whether it wanted to join the EU, but rather if the EU wanted Slovakia to join it. Thus critical aspects of the Union entry did not come to the public debate, says Gyarfasova:

"The general perception is a cautious optimism. That mean that generally people are in a positive mood, or in a positive attitude but they do not expect any miracles immediately after the entry."

Employees at the newly established governmental Euro Info Centre in Bratislava claim the interest of Slovaks in the information they provide is immense. Despite the interest there is only one such centre in the whole country. Branislav Slysko is from the European Delegation, under which 14 similar Euro Info Centres have been active in Slovakia since 1998. The European Delegation will close its office with the country's accession to the EU. Slysko says:

"I think that for the future it will be very important to provide relevant information to regions, because not everybody has Internet and I think that there are still some reserves."

The ambassador of the EU Erik van der Linden says still more needs to be done to inform citizens of both current and future member states about all the countries of the new EU. From May it'll be up to Slovakia - as a member state - to make sure it's people know what to expect as EU citizens.