It is a frequent myth that by joining the European Union, Slovakia has lost its sovereignty. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 based on free will as expressed in the referendum in May 2003 when 92.46 % of the participating voters (1,747,261 citizens) voted in favour of joining the Union.
Facts
Sovereignty as a fundamental principle of a state means that countries have control over what is happening within their borders and that they cannot interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
While the Member States maintain this sovereignty, the EU is partly governed by a supranational system – this means that every member country transfers some of its competences to EU institutions, while in exchange for that, it gets full representation in these institutions as well as participation in joint decision making.
At the same time the EU may only make decisions within the limits of its competences that are either exclusive, which means that the Union can legislate and adopt legally binding acts, or shared, which means that the Union as well as EU Member States can legislate and adopt legally binding acts, and supporting, meaning that the EU can only intervene via activities to support, coordinate or complement the action of its Member States.
Similarly, pursuant to Article 4 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, “competences not conferred upon the Union by the Treaties remain with the Member States”.
Having joined the EU, we have not lost our sovereignty, we have only voluntarily conferred a part of it to joint European institutions. The EU may only make decisions where it is allowed to do so as stated in its specified competences.
Sources: Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia , European Commission