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Calm, joint action needed to counter euro-skepticism: Slovak FM

Xinhua, July 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Calm, joint action is needed to counter growing euro-skepticism in the continent, Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak said here on Monday.

Addressing the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), Lajcak said the economy, migration and Britain's decision to leave the EU had shaken people's confidence.

"All of this is serious, but we have to remain calm and act jointly," stated Lajcak.

"People are afraid of losing their sense of security, identity and prosperity. They fear most the EU's inability to cope with all the challenges we're facing. It's time for us to look at the EU and ourselves in a critical way," he added.

Slovakia's chief diplomat emphasized the EU wants to retain good relationships with Britain. The future of the EU without Britain will also be dealt with at an informal summit in Bratislava due to take place on Sept. 16.

"We all want a modern and forward-thinking Europe of all citizens. We'd like to see more things that bind us than divide us. I have to explain clearly to our people that the EU is a solution and not a problem, a friend and not an enemy, and why there is no better alternative," Lajcak said.

Lajcak said the priorities of Slovakia's presidency of the Council of the EU would be to strengthen the European economy, modernize the internal market, develop sustainable migration and asylum policies, and to facilitate trade agreements and enlargement. Endit