Despite strong objections from API and many colleagues, the Slovak EU presidency sticks to its ‘no late accreditation’-policy. That means that to be able to attend (informal) meetings in Bratislava, journalists need to have applied for accreditation at least three weeks in advance. The Slovak authorities require this deadline in order to provide their security forces enough time to perform thorough security checks on all applying journalists.
API has protested against this requirement, that journalists never had to comply with under previous presidencies, where late accreditation was always possible. But, in a letter to API, the Slovak permanent representative to the EU, ambassador Peter Javorčik, has informed us that the requirement will not be changed. See: letter_api-ipa.pdf
Accreditation will be valid for the duration of the Slovak presidency. Next to that journalists will separately have to register for each specific event in Slovakia. The ambassador informed us that the Slovak presidency will be ‘responsive’ to late or last-minute registrations for specific events, provided that the journalist has been accredited. But it is unclear what ‘responsive’ will mean in practice.
This means that it is necessary to apply for accreditation on the Slovak presidency website (eu2016.sk) at least three weeks before the first meeting you might want to attend in Bratislava, in order not to be denied access, like some colleagues have already experienced. So, in order to be able to attend the Gymnich-meeting of 2-3 September you will have to apply for accreditation NOW, immediately followed by the required registration.
Even if you don’t know now if you will go to Bratislava at all in the next five months, it is advised to apply for accreditation now, to avoid problems when your plans suddenly change.
We ask our colleagues to inform API (secgen@api-ipa.org) of any problems they encounter with the accreditation, the registration or the organisation on the spot in Bratislava.
