Last year, for example, a Czech company lost control of a privatised Slovak chemicals plant it had bought in 1994, when shares were stolen from the securities registry and resold to Slovak investors.

ECONOMIST: Slovakia

Mikulas Dzurinda, a former prime minister and opposition leader, says that the real danger to the Slovak language comes not from tongue-tied ethnic Hungarians, but from the debasing of Slovak by foul-mouthed chauvinists in the government, such as the leader of the Slovak National Party, Jan Slota.

ECONOMIST: Slovakia criminalises the use of Hungarian

The four parties - the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK), the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), the Hungarian Coalition (SMK) and the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP) - have already "expressed the will to create, on the basis of the election results, a new Slovak government for the next four-year period", said Mikulas Dzurinda, the leader of SDK, which is the largest of the four parties.

BBC: News | Europe | Co-operation key to long-term success