Tension over Slovak dual citizenship move

Date: 28/01/1999

By Chris Johnstone

THE strains created by the European Commission's decision to put the Czech and Slovak Republics at different stages on the road to EU accession could be exacerbated even further by Czech moves to offer thousands of Slovaks dual citizenship.

The new Prague coalition government is pushing reluctant local town halls to act on a court ruling which opened the way for people who opted for Slovak citizenship when the former Czechoslovakia split in two in 1993 to turn back the clock and choose dual citizenship instead.

Around 6,000 applications for this type of citizenship are already pending, according to sources in Prague, with the possibility of thousands more in the pipeline.

The Czech government intends to clarify its offer with a new law this year, and Commission officials in Prague and Brussels say it is too early to comment on the full implications of the move.

They are, however, playing down the likelihood of a wholesale back-to-the-future move by Slovak citizens anxious to reassert their identity as Czechoslovaks.

“At first sight this would not appear to be a big problem,” said one Commission official, who added: “This is fairly small compared with German moves to give around four million Turkish citizens their dual citizenship rights.”

Even so, the Czech decision to blur another aspect of the legacy of its 'velvet' divorce from Slovakia is likely to complicate matters still further as the two countries move towards EU membership at different speeds.

With the Czech Republic in the first- wave group of applicant countries and Slovakia ordered to wait its turn in the second wave, a series of EU-inflicted regulatory barriers are likely to be erected between the two countries in the future.

Prague is already pressing the Commission to allow for its customs union with Slovakia to continue after the Czech Republic joins the Union - a concession which the EU will find hard to accept.

In reality, however, that demand is becoming increasingly symbolic as much of the Czech Republic's trade has already shifted away from Slovakia and the EU now accounts for more than two-thirds of all the country's cross-border business.

Despite past strains between the two republics, Slovakia is now keen to deepen its links with the Czech Republic and other countries in the front-line for EU membership as it seeks to promote its claim for early entry into both the Union and NATO.