Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok told a joint press conference after talks with his V4 counterparts on Monday that the foreign ministers’ exchange of ideas about the future of the EU had been extremely useful and important.
He said it must be noted in Slovakia and in the Visegrad Group that “we cannot see the danger of the EU moving towards a super-state” and pursuing ambitions to become an empire. At the same time, it must be made clear that the EU is not above criticism, he added. The Visegrad Group should state it more often that there is no alternative to being in the EU and the countries should discuss more often “what and how we want to do in the EU”, he said.
Korčok and Czech counterpart Jan Kohout both said that their respective countries supported Lithuania and they praised the planned programme of Hungary’s V4 presidency. Kohout said the Hungarian presidency’s targets were important not only for central Europe but for the whole of Europe and welcomed its priority target to strengthen neighbourly relations.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said that Poland wanted to see Europe’s population getting more involved in the debate about the EU’s future. Only politicians have had experiences so far about the workings of EU institutions, yet the majority of their decisions affect ordinary citizens, he added.
Commenting on the migration situation in Lithuania, he noted “the Lukashenka regime’s extraordinary pressure” and said that Vilnius had asked for help from each of the V4 countries separately and the group wanted to coordinate their effort to give help, acting as “a strong advocate” for Lithuania “when the Baltic country faces such an unprecedented challenge”.
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