In Nice the European Union through its Declaration on the Future of the Union called for a wider and deeper debate involving both Member and Candidate States. The aim of this discussion is to prepare the Union for functioning in the new circumstances after the accession of Central and Eastern European countries and in the process of globalisation.

The Declaration outlined four basic questions for discussion:

·         simplification of the Treaties,

·         the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,

·         the role of national Parliaments in the European architecture,

·         delimitation of competencies between the European Union and the Member States.

The discussion can be extended by further questions the period after the enlargement of the Union.

Organising the National Convention is Slovakia’s response to the call of the EU from Nice. It was inspired by the positive experiences with the European Convention, which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in the course of the last year. The objective of our National Convention is to initiate a nation-wide discussion on the aforementioned questions, which have direct impact on our national interests. In this connection there has been a special emphasis on the composition of the National Convention that should reflect the entire spectrum of our society. The National Convention is made up of representatives of parliamentary political parties, academic circles, churches, interest groups, trade unions, municipalities and regions as well as non-governmental organisations.

The idea of summoning the National Convention was presented right after the Nice summit at a Konrad Adenauer Foundation colloquium on 13 December 2000. In his speech the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ján Figeľ expressed the wish that people in Slovakia who are interested and believe in the necessity of discussing as well as preparing for challenging European tasks can meet in a suitable forum.  The framework of their debate about the European future of Slovakia could be the National Convention. It should include parliamentary political parties and actors of the Slovak economic and cultural life who are interested in elaborating a detailed vision of Slovakia in the EU. The initial meeting of the National Convention was summoned on 14 May 2001.

Nowadays the National Convention serves as a platform for the Slovak internal discussion on the future of the Union. The National Convention could acquire a new dimension after the European Convention is opened during the Spanish Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2002. The European Convention should prepare the agenda of the Intergovernmental Conference to be convened in 2004. The process of deepening the EU that was launched by means of the discussion on the future of the Union will be concluded by this Intergovernmental Conference.