The entry of the Slovak Republic into the EU will be connected with relatively high costs. The essential cause, however, is not the entry alone, but the forty-year interruption of the market economy development during which period individual areas of economy were largely neglected, and even destructed. The acceptance and implementation of acquis communateure will demand relatively large costs. The assets of EU Directives' implementation will act in a long term, costs linked with it will concentrate into short term and medium term horizon. Most extensive financial, requirements both from the state budget and from the entrepreneurial sphere and population as well will be requested in the sphere of environment. From the point of view of cost proportion linked with the implementation of EU standards and specifications relating to the environment complex one of the basic components is the waste management, above all communal waste storage. The important component is also water protection. Total costs invoked by the transition to the EU standards and specifications in the sphere of waterworks and sewerage of wastewaters represent the highest items within the environmental complex. The inevitability of investment expenditure to implement aquis in the sphere of water protection will invoke also some indirect effects. These will represent the development of activities of the Slovak construction companies of subcontractor type, and the creation of new jobs at the implementation of such projects. The third important segment in the system of environmental protection is air protection. This comprises the problems of municipalities (communal waste incineration) and,environmental problems in the entrepreneurial sphere. Particularly big gaps manifest themselves in the sphere of safety at work and health preservation at work, as even currently valid legal standards has not been consistently respected. Thus, the acceptation of aquis in this sphere too will be a relatively demanding and costly process. This refers above all to the implementation of the Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work and relative Directions. These Directives define minimum health and safety standards for concrete work situations. They relate to the requirements on workplaces, work facilities, construction sites, safety labelling as well as other requirements concerning safety at work and health protection at work. Social-economic dimensions play an important part within the process of acquis, communateure implementation. These represent above all a higher level of protection, culture and efficiency of labour and social relations. Transposition of aquis into the Slovak legislation in the sphere of social protection means among other things also the assurance of equal rights, equal treatment in the employment and profession, as well as equal rights of all citizens irrespective of their sex, race and religion, and protection against job discrimination. In the sphere of labour legislation, there are some problems with the Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time. Its transposition into the new Labour Code where the maximum working hours overtime inclusive have been limited to 48 hours, has brought about other problems rather than purely cost invoking ones (in transport, post offices, in the sphere of culture). Unlike previous spheres, where social-economic dimensions prevail, the following spheres are characterised rather by technical and economic dimension prevalence. In the agriculture and foodstuff sector, the implementation of aquis is linked mostly with the adoption of the EU technical standards and with the finalising of institutional structures inevitable for the examination of the adherence to those standards. Timely preparation of all premises indispensable to obtain EU resources in this sector is particularly important. Most important task in implementation of EU technical standards is the assurance of sanitary faultlessness of foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials. Additional costs will be required for ensuring environmental standards in storage facilities and waste management; this will influence increased unit costs mainly in stock raising and pig breeding. From the point of view of Slovakia's entry into the EU transport has the irreplaceable task. In this chapter, Slovak Republic did not ask for any exceptions or transitional period for the implementation of aquis. The Government approved the National Plan of Regional Development for the Slovak Republic for the years 2001 - 2006, which is the official document of the Government regarding requirements to finance transport infrastructure from the EU pre-entry funds. The development programme of transport infrastructure comprises also two priorities construction of railway network (4 public works) and highway construction (3 public works). Basic priority of transport sector is the construction and modernisation of transport infrastructure in approved routes of multi modular corridors. Slovak Republic accepted the results of the TINA final report, which defined the survey of infrastructure projects for reconstruction, improvement or construction of infrastructure. Basic network of TINA includes corridor IV (end points Drazdany - Istanbul), corridore VI (Gdansk - Zilina), and branch Va from Bratislava to Kosice and then to Ukraine. European Union stated that the chapter does not require further negotiation. Progress. monitoring at the acceptance and implementation of aquis will go on during further negotiations. From the point of view of the implementation of EU standards energy sector is important. Slovakia's entry into the EU from the financial point of view relates mainly to supply safety and nuclear. Current insufficient capacity of emergency reserves of oil and oil products and the need to extend these capacities up to the parameters defined by the EU Directive, e. g. 90 day consumption compared to the current 39 day capacity will require considerable costs spent by public finance. Slovak commitment to phase out gradually units of a nuclear power plant VI will not influence public finance directly, and will be financed partially from foreign resources. To support financially this phase out and eventual further related activities that could arise, a Financial Memorandum was signed between Slovakia and the EU and a special account has been opened in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In compliance with the need to meet towards the year 2004 the EU Directives 96/92 and 98/30 Slovak Republic gradually liberalises its electricity and natural gas market. In the negotiation and implementation process, the sphere of internal safety, especially Schengen agreement, is of special importance. The main task of the Slovak Republic in this area is the protection of the Slovak-Ukraine border as an outer border of the extended EU. Increased costs to protect outer border will be, however, reflected in generally higher external and internal security of the Slovak Republic. This means the decreased number of illegal migrants, decreased custom offences, more efficient detection of illegal drug trafficking etc., which will, from the economy point of view, prepare conditions for relative future savings of the state budget. Slovak Republic as a future member of the EU can become, however, to a greater extent compared to current situation,a country of destination for refugees and asylum applicants. As early as in the year 2003 one expects the increase of the number of refugees up to about 10 thousand people. From the economy point of view the increase of Slovakia's internal safety resulting from the EU membership can influence positively the income from the active tourism (prospective abolition of border controls). Slovak Republic does not need to fulfil the conditions of the Schengen aquis, and connection to the Schengen information system towards the date of EU entry, must however, fulfil the conditions defined for the first phase of the system's application.
