In the period between 2004 and 2008, the defence efforts of the Slovak Republic were dominated by tasks relating to NATO and EU membership. In 2005, new strategic documents were approved (The Security Strategy of the Slovak Republic and The Defence Strategy of the Slovak Republic) which were fully compatible with the strategic documents of the EU and NATO and defined the new nature of the defence of the Slovak Republic in the framework of collective defence, formulating requirements arising from the transition from territorial defence to defending interests. These documents together with the adoption and amendments to relevant legislation created a corresponding strategic and legal framework concerning the defence of the Slovak Republic as part of collective defence and the meeting of other NATO and EU commitments. In 2005, a new conceptual document, the Long-Term Development Plan of the Ministry of Defence Until 2015 (Model 2015), which placed emphasis on building expeditionary forces while at the same time, in contrast to Model 2010, predicting a lower level of defence spending, was approved. Its implementation has also not materialised. Transformation was therefore carried out by emphasising peace-time tasks of the AF SR, which led to a deterioration of their capacities and capabilities to carry out war-time tasks. The implementation of plans lagged behind as well, which was negatively reflected particularly in the process of modernising major military equipment. On 1 January 2006, the AF SR became fully professional with conscription legally retained. Since 2009, the unfavourable situation in the Armed Forces has been amplified by the effects of the economic crisis on defence spending, the level of which received a significant downward trend. At the same time, the growing demand for capabilities development and a gradual shift in proportion from their participation in missions and operations abroad in favour of NATO-led operations brought with it increased demands on human, material, but in particular financial resources. It was confirmed that organisational changes in the AF SR aimed at lowering numbers of personnel, which was the key characteristic of their transformation since 1993, do not achieve the desired effect, i.e. use of saved funds for the acquisition of equipment and other materiel, including communication and information systems. The slowdown in the transformation of the Armed Forces began to gradually limit the carrying out of their basic tasks. The urgent need to define new parameters for the long-term development of ensuring national defence with an emphasis on the projection of the future development of the Armed Forces, while responding primarily to the reduced levels of defence spending, resulted in the initiation of the Strategic Defence Review process in the second half of 2010. Drafting of its key outputs was delayed by the fall of the Government in the autumn of 2011 and did not result in the adoption of fundamental documents in that election term. For this reason, the lack of a realistic framework of long-term development of the AF SR with suitable budgetary backing that existed since 2007 (the year when Model 2015 was abandoned) persisted. This in turn delayed systemic solutions with implications for the ability of the Slovak Republic to defend itself. After the early parliamentary elections of 2012 the new Government of the Slovak Republic continued with the Strategic Defence Review process and released the White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic in 2013. OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC 17