Partner countries

PARTNER COUNTRIES

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia is located in the middle of Europe. Surrounding countries:Czech Republic (west), Austria (south-west), Hungary (south), Ukraine (east), Poland (north).

What every visitor should know before coming toSlovakia: Visas and embassies, electricity and elephones, currency, language, national flag, holidays...

Slovak Republic

Official name: Slovak Republic

Name in native language Slovensko ("Slovakia"), or Slovenská republika ("Slovak Republic")

Capital cityBratislava

Currency: Euro

Official languageSlovak

Population: 5.500.000

The European Union and NATO member state since 2004. Slovak is a western Slavic language, very closely related to Czech and relatively close to Polish and the languages of the former Yugoslavia.

Nationalities: 85% Slovak (western Slavic in origin), 10% Hungarian, 3% Roma. Significant smaller nationalities include Czechs, Ruthenians, Ukranians, Germans and Poles.
Religions: 63% Roman Catholic, 9% Protestant, 4% Greek Catholic, 2% other churches.

Type of government: republic, with parliamentary democracy.

Head of government: Prime Minister, generally the leader of the largest party in parliament, this post holds most real executive authority.
Legislative body: National Council, a one-house parliament elected at least once every four years.
Head of state: President, elected once every five years, largely ceremonial.

Modern Slovakia was born as an independent nation-state in 1993, when it peacefully separated from the Czech Republic, splitting from the former Czechoslovakia by mutual agreement. (There has been no organized conflict of any kind in Slovakia since 1945.) Many foreigners still confuse Slovakia with Slovenia of the former Yugoslavia.

ITALY

Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy is a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.

Nationality: Italian

Ethnic groups:

Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)

Languages:

Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German-speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Religions:

Christian 80% (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants), Muslim (about 800,000 to 1 million), Atheist and Agnostic 20%

Population: 61,855,120 (July 2015 est.

Name of the country: Italy/ Italian Republic

15 regions and 5 autonomous regions

regions: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio (Latium), Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte (Piedmont), Puglia (Apulia), Toscana (Tuscany), Umbria, Veneto (Venetia)

autonomous regions: Friuli-Venezia Giulia; Sardegna (Sardinia); Sicilia (Sicily); Trentino-Alto Adige (Trentino-South Tyrol) or Trentino-Suedtirol (German); Valle d'Aosta (Aosta Valley) or Vallee d'Aoste (French)

ROMANIA

Official Name: Romania

Location: (Southeastern) Central Europe

Time Zone: Seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 2)

Area: 92,043 sq. miles (238,391 sq. km) - a little larger than the state of Minnesota

Flag of Romania: Three vertical stripes: red, yellow and blue.
Population: 19,651,000 (March 2014)

Main Ethnic Groups: Romanian 84%, Hungarian 6.1%, Gipsy 3.1%,
German 0.2%, Ukrainian 0.2%

Religions: Christian Orthodox 81%, Roman Catholic 4.3%, Reformed 3%,
Greek-Catholic 0.7%, Unitarian 0.3%, Jewish, other.

Official Language: Romanian

Currency: Romanian Leu (RON) ( plural Lei )

Climate: Temperate, four distinct seasons, similar to northeastern USA

Capital: Bucharest (București)

Form of State: Romania is a semi-parliamentary democracy based on a
bicameral Parliament: the Chamber of Representatives (Camera Deputaţilor) and the Senate (Senat).
All members of the legislature are directly elected from Romania's 41 counties.)

Legal system: Based on European models and Constitution of 1991.

Electoral System: Universal direct suffrage over the age of 18.
Parties must win at least five percent of the national vote to gain
representation in the Parliament.

National Elections: December 9, 2012;
next ellections: Fall 2014 (presidential), Fall 2016 (parliamentary)

Head of State: President of the Republic, currently Mr. Traian Basescu
(re-elected on December 6, 2009).
Romania's president is allowed to serve two consecutive five-year terms.

National Government: The government is led by the Prime Minister,
confirmed by the Parliament on the nomination of the President of Romania. Head of the Government: the Prime Minister, currently
Romania is a member state of theEU and NATO.