The future of the European Constitutional Treaty was one of the topics, which President Ivan Gasparovic discussed with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. They touched upon the issue of healthcare in both countries, alone with presentation of Slovakia as a dynamically developing country with a favorable business environment. Slovakia reports a large share of investments from the Netherlands in the Slovak economy. The Netherlands is at present the biggest foreign investor in Slovakia.
Foreign Minister Jan Kubis met with the Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister, Maxime Verhagen, who is accompanying Queen Beatrix to Slovakia. The ministers shared the opinion that relations between Slovakia and the Netherlands are very good. Mr. Kubis thanked his Dutch counterpart for support the Netherlands showed the Slovakia prior to its EU and NATO entry. He reminded that the Netherlands provided not only political support, but also assistance in harmonizing Slovakia's legislation and administrative systems to the needs of the EU and NATO. Moreover, the Netherlands supported Slovakia in the UN Security Council during a discussion on reform of the security sector.
"When we discuss the new European Constitutional Treaty, we will need each other," said Mr. Verhagen in reaction to ongoing discussions on the future of the draft joint EU document. He preferred using the term interstate agreement to a constitutional treaty. He believes that the document will solve pressing issues as climate change, energy security, fight against international terrorism, and migration of asylum seekers. He realizes that Slovakia will try to include crucial points of the current version of the European treaty into the new document, since Slovak parliament has already ratified it.
Mr. Verhagen added that his country is ready to assist Slovakia in solving of the Roma issue and advise Slovakia during its presidency at Council of Europe as of November of this year.
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