Brussels, 29/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner responsible for economic and financial affairs, Pedro Solbes, and the Slovakian Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Ivan Miklos, signed in Brussels on Tuesday a "joint evaluation" (carried out by the services of the Commission and the Slovakian government) of medium-term economic priorities that Slovakia should implement by 2004 in order to prepare for EU membership.
The joint evaluation, which comes within the context of the Accession Partnership, recommends a series of medium-term economic policies to the Slovakian authorities, policies that are required for promoting the country's economic transformation with a view to preparing EU participation. In this context, priority is above all given to macro-economic stabilisation, which, in the case of Slovakia, first and foremost assumes reduction of the current deficit and its stabilisation at an acceptable level.
The joint evaluation signed on Tuesday comprises a macro-economic scenario for the period 2000-2004. According to this scenario, if the Slovakian government effectively implements all the recommendations contained in the document, all macro-economic disequilibria are removed quite rapidly by the end of this year and structural reforms introduced. Then, during the period 2001-2004, the positive results of these reforms should be reflected in accelerating economic growth. If the planned measures are fully implemented in time, economic growth would start to accelerate in 2001 and could reach growth rates of more than 5% from 2002 onwards.