The Visegrád Group cooperation has become a success story over the past 30 years, and its members — Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland — can be proud of their achievements, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said in his opening address to a V4 meeting in Visegrád, the birthplace of the initiative, north of Budapest, on Thursday.
Kövér noted that the proponents of the initiative had joined forces in central Europe with the aim of better promoting their interests in the process of European integration. Participants in the Visegrád meeting will discuss the future of the Europe as well as its values and interests, Kövér added.
Péter Sztáray, state secretary of security policy at the foreign ministry, said the two items on the agenda were no coincidence: discussions about the future of Europe embraced the broader geographical community rather than just the European Union, and included the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries, and this tied in with discussions about the political, economic and security situation of central Europe. He said it was highly important that the central European region, as “the engine of Europe”, should overcome the pandemic together and reboot the region in short order. With its 65 million people, the region has produced the highest growth in the EU while finding political unity on many issues, Sztáray added.
For the region’s successful economic relaunch, a common position is needed in areas such as the digital switchover as well as the energy and green transition, he said, adding that the V4 was also working closely with European and global partners who are playing a growing role in central European investments. It is in all four countries’ interests to address these players together, he said.
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