Pellegrini in Budapest: Further Functioning of V4 Important to Slovakia (2)

Budapest, March 11 (TASR-correspondent) - It is important to Slovakia that the Visegrad Four (V4 - Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) continues to function, said Parliamentary Chair Peter Pellegrini (Voice-SD) at a news conference held jointly with his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Kover as part of his working visit to Hungary on Monday, TASR learnt from its special correspondent in Budapest on the same day. Pellegrini underlined that the V4 has proven itself to be very beneficial in areas in which the four countries share the same opinions. The Slovak parliamentary chair noted that the inhabitants of the V4 countries make up almost 10 percent of the entire population of the European Union (EU). "Therefore, the voices of Slovakia, Hungary and our other neighbours must sound more resolutely in the EU as well," he said. Pellegrini described his talks with Kover as open and direct. "We have the same view in terms of fighting illegal migration. We both protect our own part of the Schengen border," said the Slovak parliamentary chair, who thanked Hungary for its part in protecting Slovakia's airspace. Meanwhile, Pellegrini noted that Slovak police officers help to protect the Hungarian-Serbian border. He concurred with the speaker of the Hungarian Parliament that neither Slovakia, nor Hungary will ever agree to the mandatory redistribution of migrants. "We agreed on a similar procedure in relation to the military conflict in Ukraine. Even if the aggressor in this conflict is Russia, which attacked Ukraine, we mustn't give up on efforts to end the everyday killing of soldiers and civilians as soon as possible," stated Pellegrini, reiterating that Slovakia won't send a single soldier to Ukraine under any circumstances. ko/df