This chapter provides a brief description of the integration of the Slovak Republic to the European Union in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The chapter illustrates how the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) plays a formative role in the preparation of the Slovak Republic for the membership in the European Union (EU). CFSP represents one of factors that help to define objectives and limits of the Slovak foreign and security policy. As the area of the integration, which operates on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement, the CFSP poses primarily a political and diplomatic challenge for Slovakia. Despite some calls for the fundamental reform of Common Foreign and Security Policy in the framework of the ongoing debate on the future of Europe, following years will apparently not bring any significant modification of the intergovernmental basis of this form of the common political cooperation.

The issues of Common Foreign and Security Policy represent, in comparison with the issues of First and Third Pillar, a different quality of political processes and decision-making mechanisms. The chapter describes the place of CFSP within the broader context of the European enlargement. It analyses the attitude of Slovakia towards the building of the Common Foreign and Security Policy at the background of the accession negotiations with the European Union. It also reflects the importance of European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) and the stance of Slovakia towards this dynamically developing area. Finally, it depicts the opportunities of the future contribution of the SR to the development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Opportunities are seen primarily in formulation of the strategies relating the eastern neighbours of the enlarged EU and in the efforts to reform the Second Pillar.