Slovakia Assumes One-year Rotating Visegrad Four Presidency

Bratislava, July 1 (TASR) – Slovakia is the presiding country of the Visegrad Four (V4) grouping (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) as of Sunday, under the slogan ‘A Dynamic Visegrad for Europe’.
The programme will rest on three main pillars: a strong Europe, a safe environment and smart solutions. Slovakia will hold the rotating presidency for one year and then hand it over to the Czech Republic.
Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) officially took over the presidency in Budapest on Thursday, June 21 from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“We’re taking over the presidency in a relatively sensitive political time, when Europe has many unresolved questions, but here I want to be a constructive partner who comes up with constructive solutions,” said Pellegrini at the time.
According to the Slovak premier, the Slovak presidency’s aim is to deliver specific results for the benefit of V4 citizens.
The presidency also intends “to emphasise our clear orientation towards Europe as an area that is vitally important for the further development of the region as a whole”. The strong Europe priority involves pursuing an active approach by the V4 in discussions on the future of the EU and in decisions on its key policies. At the same time the group plans to cooperate intensively with European partners such as Germany, France and the Nordic, Baltic and Benelux countries.
Slovakia is presiding over the Visegrad Four for the fifth time. The last time was in 2014-15 under the slogan ‘A Dynamic Visegrad in the EU and the World’.