The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fijala opposed today in Prague the ideas to abolish or limit the use of the veto in the European Union and requested that the debate on decision-making in the Union be separated from the topic of enlargement to the countries of the Western Balkans, but that the enlargement should be accelerated .
"Besides the issue of the veto, it is important for us that we do not want the discussion on decision-making in the EU to be linked with the debate on enlargement. This is an important topic for us because we believe that this process should be accelerated, and the countries of the Western Balkans should be given a clearer perspective than they have now. It is important that these things are not connected and conditioned because the debate on the decision will be long and complicated," said Czech Prime Minister Fijala at a joint press conference with Fico.
The newly elected Slovak Prime Minister advocated today in the talks with the Czech hosts that the activities of the Visegrad Group should be restarted because, regardless of the differences in the approach to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which have paralyzed cooperation, there are important topics, let's say the issue of the veto or the EU's multi-year budget framework, where they can coordinate a joint action towards Brussels.
"The four countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) represent a large part of the European population. So many that they have to take our position into account. For the Czech Republic, taking away the right of veto is a red line. It is for us too. If four countries say no, it is not so easy to take away our right veto and do what you want," Fico said.
The Czech Prime Minister promised his Slovakian guest that he would convene an urgent summit of the Visegrad Four Prime Ministers as soon as the new Polish government is formed.
"But it's not the case that when prime ministers don't meet, the V4 doesn't exist. Ministers meet, presidents have met. Without a doubt, we have different attitudes towards some issues, say in foreign policy, but that doesn't mean we can't cooperate where we have the same attitudes ", said Fijala.
Prime Minister Fico said today in Prague that, except for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, his government and the Czech Republic do not have opposing views.
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