V4 still functioning despite diverging opinions on migrant quotas: Slovak president
Xinhua, October 5, 2015 Adjust font size:
Despite diverging opinions on the distribution of migrants within the European Union (EU), the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) is still a functioning group, said Slovak President Andrej Kiska on Sunday.
"We have the right to express our opinion, but it's very important that in the past -- and I believe that it will also be the case in the future -- we've been able to debate the most fundamental issues in order to speak in one voice," stressed Kiska.
Kiska was reacting to the fact that all the V4 members initially held a joint rejecting stance towards the mandatory quotas, but Poland eventually voted for the distribution of 120,000 asylum seekers at a session of EU interior ministers, while the rest of V4 voted against the scheme.
Meanwhile, Slovakia in the end remained alone in filing a lawsuit against the move at the EU court in Luxembourg, even though the Czech Republic initially also appeared to be thus inclined.
The migration issue and the announced expanding of the transport capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline will be among the main topics of a V4 presidential summit on Oct. 8-9 at Lake Balaton in Hungary. Endit