Bratislava - mirror into the EU's future?

By Christoph Thanei Apr 20, 2011, 8:52 GMT

Bratislava - Bratislava's unique location beside Austria and Hungary makes the city on the banks of the River Danube the only national capital that borders two independent countries.

The Slovak capital can also be considered a microcosm of how the unfettered right of freedom of movement of people within the European Union is slowly but surely changing the face of the continent.

'Slovaks are going to be in the majority here within 20 years,' predicts Eva Aubrechtova, who is employed as a French language teacher in a school in Bratislava but now lives over the border in the Austrian town of Kittsee.

Around 100 Slovakian families are among Kittsee's 2,000 residents. Slovak children take up nearly a third of all kindergarten places.

That percentage is expected to rise to 50 per cent quite quickly as most of the new Slovak residents are families with young children while Kittsee's Austrian residents are predominantly aging pensioners.

'Before the Berlin Wall fell, Wolfsthal seemed like a village at the end of the world. Now it is growing again and the population is younger,' says Gerhard Schoedinger, mayor of the neighbouring village of Wolfsthal which is just half the size of Kittsee.

In contrast to the local aging populace, the new arrivals from Slovakia have virtually all arrived with a university education under their belts, he says.

Schoedinger points out that they should not be considered nouveau riche, rather modern, well-educated people looking to live in the countryside.

Not surprisingly, virtually all are working in booming Bratislava, which according to the latest Eurostat data has passed out Vienna in terms of pro-capita economic output and purchasing power.

This new-found wealth, coupled with the much lower property prices compared to Bratislava, has made neighbouring Austria an attractive proposition for many Slovaks. The nearby Hungarian community of Rajka is also well on the way to becoming a virtual suburb of Bratislava.

The fact that the Slovak capital is now stretching into Hungary and two Austrian federal states has more to do with its location than its size as the city still only has 430,000 inhabitants.

The Austrian villages of Kittsee, Pama, Edelstal im Burgenland, Berg, Wolfsthal and the small town of Hainburg in the province of Lower Austria nearly encircle Bratislava. Rajka, meanwhile, is easier to reach on the motorway than many of the city's outskirts.

Following the end of the Iron Curtain, many Slovak parents sent their children to Austrian schools so that they could learn German quickly but with EU accession in 2004 and the property boom in Bratislava, more and more families have now decided to live full-time over the border.

Those who have decided not to move to Austria instead shop there due to the lower prices and better quality of products.

The ease of cross-border movement has been helped by quality public transport buses running from Hainsburg and villages like Wolfsthal into the heart of Bratislava.

The commuting times are actually shorter than those for residents of Devinska Nova Ves, which is home to a Volkswagen factory.

Rajka has also recently been linked to Bratislava via a city bus route meaning people no longer need a car to travel to work in Bratislava.

On sunny weekends when the area is full of cyclists, walkers and skaters, it is hard to imagine that at the height of the Cold War this small corner of Europe was once separated by armed troops and an impenetrable wall of barbed wire.

With so many Slovaks now taking up residence across the border in Austria, many of the area's village schools are having to be extended to deal with the influx, and because their parents generally have a university education, the standard is high once the initial language issues are overcome.

But not everyone is happy about the open borders and the new families in their midst.

'None of us were prepared for this and since the borders opened crime levels have risen,' says Austrian pensioner Ludwig Tomasich.

'In the old days we used to leave our doors open but today we lock everything but still there is just one break-in after the other.'

Kittsee's bank recently suffered two robberies in the space of a fortnight while businesses and private homes have been the object of targeted burglaries.

For the Austrian police, the more accessible Bratislava's high-rise labyrinth of Petrzalka becomes, the greater the risk. Author: Christoph Thanei