Pellegrini to Meet His Ukrainian Counterpart Zelenskyy at EU Summit
Brussels, June 27 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovak President Peter Pellegrini confirmed on Thursday, after arriving at a two-day EU summit in Brussels, that he'll meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the start of the official talks among EU leaders.
The Slovak head of state also said that Slovakia's position on the filling of high-ranking posts in EU institutions remains unchanged.
"It is supposed to be a short bilateral meeting before the official programme is launched with the participation of the president. I expect this to happen before we have a joint photo session and the signing of the EU-Ukraine treaties," said the Slovak president, referring to the security pact between the two sides, which should ensure Ukraine's long-term support, including military support, from the EU.
Pellegrini added that this short meeting will be followed by a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, scheduled during the NATO summit in Washington in July. "I'll inform him about what Slovakia is currently doing in relation to Ukraine and I'll ask him how he assesses the current situation on the Ukrainian front. I'll try to make this a meeting of two good neighbours who must help each other in this difficult moment," he said.
Pellegrini expressed his conviction that Zelenskyy sees well the steps taken so far by the Slovak side after the joint meeting of the two governments in Michalovce [Kosice region], including the signing of a memorandum on joint projects to be implemented between Ukraine and Slovakia.
The Slovak head of state also touched upon the issue of filling the top posts in EU institutions and specified that nothing had changed in the Slovak position since last week's extraordinary summit, especially with regard to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Portuguese ex-prime minister Antonio Costa, and he expects "tough debates" on this topic.
"We'll see what will come out of the negotiations of the big trio-coalition and what space will be created for Slovak nominee for the EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic," he stated, referring to the talks between the three big European political families - the People's Party, the Socialists and the Liberals.
