Foreign Policies

Fico: V4 Leaders and Juncker Discuss Disputed Issues

Brussels/Bratislava, October 19 (TASR correspondent) – The prime ministers of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) at a working dinner with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday (October 18) mainly discussed issues on which they hold different views and for which they seek joint solutions, stated Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) when he arrived at a European Council session in Brussels on Thursday.

According to Fico, the working dinner gave the leaders scope for long and open talks. Among other issues, they discussed migration and concurred that “the most important thing is to work in the countries from which migrants come”.

Among other issues, they discussed migration and concurred that “the most important thing is to work in the countries from which migrants come”.

“That’s why we’re thinking about a joint project within the V4, for example, for Libya, but our attitude – and in this we achieved complete unity yesterday – has remained negative in terms of any [mandatory] quotas,” said Fico, adding that the V4 leaders also agreed that the idea of an “integral Muslim community” is “absolutely unacceptable” for them.

The Slovak premier also said that the V4 premiers further criticised “checks on the internal borders of the Schengen area” and stated that an increase in terrorism in Europe has been caused by an uncontrolled influx of migrants.

“There was some kind of power coming from the meeting. There were four standard countries with political systems that know exactly what they want, and so, at the end we welcomed Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposal that he wants to meet in this format more frequently,” said Fico.

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