Fico: By Reviving Coordination, V4 Will Also Regain Great Respect across EU

Bratislava, 7 July (TASR) - If the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group countries (V4: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) regain the ability to coordinate their stances, even the so-called big players in the European Union (EU) will have to respect the strength and weight of the four countries, which represent over 60 million people, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has said in an interview for TASR. In the previous period, he said, there were attempts to dismantle the V4 through the targeted widening of divides between the stances of individual prime ministers. "However, I view the current line-up of prime ministers as a group that's keen to find common ground," stressed Fico. He said that there's interest in restoring the importance and core idea of the V4, as shown by the consensus he experienced at a meeting of the V4 prime ministers in Budapest in June to mark the end of Hungary's V4 presidency. "All four of us understood that if we are to restore the V4, we must be very restrained in our statements and deal with what we have in common," explained Fico. The Slovak V4 presidency will focus on common interests that have the prospect of bringing individual stances closer. For this reason, Fico has been vocal about reinstating coordination meetings before summits in Brussels. "That's going to happen. We'll always choose topics on which we are moving closer together, and we'll discuss them well ahead of the summits, so that in the end we can outline the common and coordinated opinion that we'll present," stressed Fico. He's convinced that with positions coordinated in this manner, it won't be possible to disregard the opinions of the V4 countries, such as their common stance on cohesion policy and on removing regional disparities as part of the new EU budget. "If the budget proposal goes against our ideas and there's a threat that all four of us could veto it, someone would have to knock on our door and talk to us," stressed Fico. According to him, the V4's current four-member format won't change, but there will be talks in wider formats. "My aim is for the first V4 meeting to focus on high energy prices, and for that we need the participation of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz," stated Fico. jrg/df