On 1st January 2003, the Czech Republic marks its tenth birthday. This is not a time of loud celebrations and cork-popping. The division of Czechoslovakia was peaceful and unspectacular, and in the Czech Republic today the common state of Czechs and Slovaks that was founded in 1918 and dissolved just under seventy-five years later, is often remembered with a vague sense of nostalgia. For the young generation Czechoslovakia is little more than a childhood memory.

Over the past ten years much has changed in the two countries that emerged from the "Velvet Divorce". Today both stand on the verge of European Union membership, paradoxically the most ambitious programme of integration in Europe's modern-day history.

During the anniversary Radio Prague takes the opportunity to look at the state of the Czech Republic today. How are Czech-Slovak relations ten years on? Do Czechs identify with their young state? Is the "special relationship" of Czechs and Slovaks a reality or a myth? Why do thousands of Czechs spend their holidays in Slovakia? How many Slovaks live in the Czech Republic and what role do they play in Czech society? Why are Czechs and Slovaks so fond of each other's pop music? Who cheers for whom when the national hockey teams take to the ice?

In our special anniversary series, we try to answer to some of these questions