5.1 the opposition is sufficiently represented in the parliamentary control committees and has the chair of one of them;
5.2 amendments to the Slovak Constitution, the law on courts and judges and other legislation are being prepared (for submission to parliament in the course of September 1999) in order to:
a strengthen the independence of the judiciary, inter alia by providing for the election of judges for life, the creation of a Supreme Judicial Council as a self-governing body, and financial autonomy of the judiciary;
b increase the powers of the Constitutional Court and clarify its relation with the general courts;
c reduce the current excessive case-load;
d repeal the possibility to grant an amnesty while a criminal investigation is imminent or pending;
e possibly create the institution of ombudsman;
5.3 legislation on the restructuring of the administration is being prepared with the aim of:
a increasing the powers of local self-government authorities;
b introducing regional self-government; following the adoption of the law, regional councils should be elected by the end of 2000 or the beginning of 2001 and the European Charter of Local Self-Government (signed in February 1999) should be ratified;
5.4 amendments to the electoral law have been passed to allow electoral campaigning also in the private electronic media; the objectivity of public television has been positively assessed during the recent presidential election campaign; the status and composition of the radio and television broadcasting council should, however, be reconsidered since they do not guarantee its independence;
5.5 the post of a Deputy Prime Minister responsible for human rights, minorities and regional development and a parliamentary committee for human rights and minorities have been created; bilingual certificates are used in schools with instruction in a minority language; a law was adopted on 10 July 1999 to regulate, in conjunction with other specific laws, the use of minority languages in official communications: according to the new law, persons belonging to national minorities are entitled to use their language in communications with organs of public administration and of local self-government in those municipalities where the minority constitutes at least 20% of the population; the law which restores previous practice – interrupted by the adoption of the state language law – and which satisfies a constitutional requirement, was adopted after consultations with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the European Union and the Council of Europe and is welcomed; other problems, however, resulting from the state language law with regard to freedom of expression, as well as the use of minority languages in other settings, notably education, and still need to be regulated, in conformity with recommendations by the three international organisations; the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is also strongly recommended;
5.6 as regards the Roma minority in particular, programmes have been put into place to promote the education of Roma pupils (for example, school text books in the Roma language) and motivate school attendance and further integration, through co-operation with non-governmental organisations, among other things; measures have been taken to better monitor and prevent racially motivated attacks; the post of a government commissioner and an advisory parliamentary committee to deal with the problems of the Roma population have been created; the situation of the Roma minority is closely followed, inter alia, by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance which will assess existing measures and make further proposals in its second stage report on Slovakia, to be prepared by the end of 1999.
