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

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

In 1993, the Slovak parliament elected economist Michal Kovac as newly-independent Slovakia's first president.

CNN: Saturday,