Fico: Don’t Ignore the EU, but Don’t Follow Its Incompetent Leadership
Brussels/Bratislava, 22 January (TASR) – In general, the European Union should not be ignored, but Slovakia should also not be complicit in its incompetent leadership, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said ahead of an extraordinary European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Fico noted that he supports the EU and appreciates the positive impact that Slovakia's EU membership has had on its development.
European Council President Antonio Costa convened a summit of EU leaders for Thursday evening.
The reason are threats by US President Donald Trump related to Greenland, which Trump wants to acquire for the United States and in this context threatened to impose tariffs on several European countries.
According to Fico, Costa organised the meeting to calm panic among some member states. The prime minister described the summit as a "super-expensive dinner" and does not expect any decisions to be adopted. He added that it is not known in advance when the European Council meeting will end.
"I might have a hundred reasons to refuse such international improvisation, but if I did not go to Brussels, all the opposition experts in Slovakia would go out of their minds that I am ignoring Brussels," Fico said in a video recorded aboard a government aircraft.
The prime minister repeated his criticism of the EU leadership and recalled that he openly protested against the nomination of former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas to the post of EU foreign policy chief and that he recently called for her replacement.
At the same time, he praised Members of the European Parliament for the party Smer-SD for again voting to dismiss European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"I am in favour of the EU, I appreciate the positive impact that EU membership has had on our development so far. But that cannot mean that I will be a pro-Brussels dimwit, as we see in the case of the current anti-Slovak and purely pro-Brussels opposition," Fico said, adding that the Union cannot be led by people with whom "decisive global players do not meet and do not consult seriously".
In this context, he pointed out that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly refused to meet Kallas.
"We can emerge from the deep crisis the EU is in only with new leadership and new ideas. Three things are declassing us – because of excessive climate targets we cannot compete with China or the global south; we cannot manage illegal migration, where US President Donald Trump should be a model for us with his uncompromising stance; and we have no courage to express our own views on key foreign policy issues," Fico said.
In Fico's view, the current EU leadership offers no answers to any of these issues and therefore needs to be replaced.
"This is not an angry or personal remark, it is political reality," he added, stating that the EU is subject to "exactly the same rule as a massage parlour: if it is not doing well, it is not enough to change the beds, you have to change the staff".
In the video, the prime minister also announced that after the Brussels summit he will meet in Paris on Friday, together with Slovak Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky, with representatives of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
According to him, he wants to start discussions with international experts on pro-growth decisions for Slovakia.
