Juncker: V4 Should Organise Summit with Commission on EU Future

Brussels, July 27 (TASR-correspondent) – The European Commission will welcome it if the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) organises in the autumn a summit with eurocommissioners on the future of the EU, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a joint press conference on Thursday.

Juncker stated that he not only debated with Fico the issue of double-quality food standards between old and new EU countries, but also general issues on the EU’s future.

“I’m glad that Fico stresses that he wants to be in the narrower core of the EU. This is precisely what we want,” said Juncker, adding that he doesn’t like to see new EU-member countries treated as second class.

“Slovakia is in the heart of Europe … We want to act together as a bloc of 27 countries and we want to have Slovakia on our side,” said Juncker, who praised Slovakia for its active approach towards promoting the setting up of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

As for the mini-summit, it should also concern migration, including the quota scheme for the distribution of migrants, and other issues concerning the entire EU, said Juncker.

At the same time he noted that Fico has been the first prime minister from an EU country to open the issue of double standards for the quality of food sold under the same brand by major international companies.

Fico said that he welcomed Juncker’s proposal on organising a mini-summit. “If we debate generally, we all know that we’ll also debate specifically,” said Fico, adding that there’s too little scope for deeper debates at ordinary EU summits.