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Slovak president says need to restore trust, self-confidence in Europe

Xinhua, July 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) has enough resources and capacities to overcome the problems it is facing, announced Slovak President Andrej Kiska here at a concert at the Slovak National Theatre to celebrate Slovakia's presidency of the Council of the EU on Friday.

Kiska added that what Europe needed most at the moment was restored trust and self-confidence.

"We have to learn to live in such a large family, to handle not only celebrations and holidays, but also misfortunes, mistakes, errors, or weaknesses. Everything that is part and parcel of normal life," said Kiska.

The president said Slovakia had assumed the presidency at a time fraught with crises.

"This makes us concerned, sad, surprised and maybe even tired today of visions of how to make things better that are laden with uncertainty," stressed Kiska.

According to Kiska, Slovakia had been lucky to experience a relatively long period in Europe when everything had gone according to plan and all the successes were taken for granted.

"We have begun to face problems we simply didn't expect. We're just learning to handle them together: the economic and financial crisis, problems with euro, the wave of refugees and migrants, renewed security threats, terrorism," claimed Kiska.

The president said the priorities of Slovakia's presidency were useful and specific: "We want to help mediate the European dialogue, one in which we all preserve the ability to listen to each other without instantly making judgements," concluded Kiska. Endit