Fico: We Want UK to Fulfil Commitments

Warsaw, March 28 (TASR) – Having made the choice to leave the EU, the United Kingdom should make good on all of its commitments towards it, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico after meeting his Czech, Hungarian and Polish peers at a Visegrad Four (V4) summit in Warsaw on Tuesday.

In their talks on Brexit among other matters, the premiers singled out two issues that are of paramount interest to them vis-a-vis Brexit – the standing of V4 citizens working in the UK post-Brexit and the UK’s observance of commitments deriving from EU membership.

“I’m speaking about 80,000 people from Slovakia alone, and we’re looking to receive assurances that these people won’t be treated as second-class inhabitants of the United Kingdom after Brexit,” said Fico.

Fico then turned to the UK’s obligations. “This is also what we’re greatly interested in seeing, especially in terms of the multi-annual financial framework that is due to expire in 2020”.

“All we want is to ensure that the country that has chosen to leave the EU will deliver on all of its commitments,” said Fico.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka noted that there’s a need to watch out for possible changes on the UK’s labour market during the next two years involving Brexit talks, as the United Kingdom continues to be a full-fledged EU-member country for now. “As a result, the United Kingdom shouldn’t make any decisions imposing restrictions on our workers because that would run counter to the EU’s principles,” said Sobotka.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stated that the V4 countries care about ensuring that relations with the UK are good and that the UK remains an important partner for the EU.

The four prime ministers are also scheduled to open the Central and Eastern Europe Innovators Summit later in the day at which they’ll discuss regional ties in the innovative economy and sign a Warsaw Declaration, which will enhance links in this area.