Slovakia will sign a visa waiver agreement with the U.S. next week, the interior minister said Friday, according to AP. Slovakia would join the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia, which recently signed separate deals with the U.S. The move had irked the EU because Brussels wanted to negotiate a visa-waiver pact for the entire 27-nation bloc. Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said he would sign a deal Monday in Washington that will make it possible for Slovaks to travel to the U.S. without a visa, possibly before the end of the year. EU and U.S. officials agreed Thursday that Washington will negotiate both with the bloc and with government officials in individual EU nations. The current program allows citizens from most Western European countries to enter the U.S. without visas. However, it excludes Greece, the Czech Republic, the three Baltic states and the EU's other eastern European nations, except for Slovenia. Two other countries _ Hungary and Lithuania _ are expected to sign similar deals soon.
