Danko: V4 Group News Agencies to Report More on Governments' Steps

Przemysl/Bratislava, December 4 (TASR-correspondent) – The Visegrad Four (V4) countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) will cooperate more closely, exchange information more intensively and seek to unify their policies so that people can see that their everyday problems are being addressed, concurred the V4 parliamentary chairs at an informal meeting in the Polish city of Przemysl on Sunday.

“The most important thing for me was that we agreed on communicating more intensively and exchanging information via our media. We’ll call on our news agencies to monitor more intensively the steps our governments take vis-a-vis the European Union,” stated Slovak Parliamentary chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS) after the meeting.

According to Danko, the heads of Parliaments discussed the difficulties that each of the four cabinets have when it comes to implementing measures aimed at protecting their interests. As an example, Danko pointed to the complicated introductions of a special levy on regulated industries in Slovakia, a telecommunications tax in Hungary and the decrease of the retirement age in Poland.

“All these achievements were introduced in the interest of the V4 citizens. We have to care and exchange information about these successes much more so that we are capable of providing our people with a better quality of life, regardless of whether they are Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs or Poles.”

Danko added that the V4 countries are struggling with the same issues. “We still have problems with the social system and the social security of our people. There are also problems with multinational companies, the energy field, cheap labour – but with a lack of labour as well,” he said.

The V4 parliamentary chairs concurred that they want to meet more often, mainly before the European Parliament sessions so they can attend the sessions with a clear and joint stance.