Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. Working Group on Strategic Leadership in Central Gov... Author(s) Erik Lastic Comenius University Bratislava Slovakia Title Legislative and executive power after EU accession in Slovakia: Two years evaluated File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The main question of this paper is how, and to what extent EU accession and subsequently EU membership influenced the relation between the executive and the legislature in Slovakia. It is argued that the changes of the executive-legislative relations partly resulted from Slovakia’s accession process, however the domestic factors, namely the complicated transition to democracy played an important role as well. The key factor was the continued strengthening of executive power that was the direct consequence of legislative dominance of the government, the 2001 Amendment of the Constitution and the accession into EU. The paper analyzes the European dimension of the 2001 Amendment, with specific focus on the executive’s decrees, which were to accelerate the transposition of the acquis communautaire; the reaction of the legislature to this weakening vis-à-vis the executive, as well as to EU membership that introduced a binding mandate for cabinet’s members when presenting Slovak position in the Council of Ministers. Finally it evaluates these changes after two years after the last enlargement.
