While leaders of both chambers of the Czech parliament decided to boycott an upcoming meeting with their Visegrád 4 counterparts over Hungary’s Russia policy, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala is going ahead with the summit of government chiefs of the embattled regional grouping.
Fiala is planning to attend the meeting between prime ministers of the Visegrad group on 24 November in Slovakia, where he plans to discuss the controversial German €200 billion ‘economic shield’ and to push for a common approach in supporting industry and companies.
“We prefer a common approach and common rules because, in a competition of national budgets, we would certainly not take first place, nor could we,” Fiala told Seznam Zprávy.
In deciding to go ahead with the meeting, Fiala is splitting with Czech Speaker of the House Markéta Pekarová Adamová and Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil, both of whom refused to sit at the same table with the Hungarian side at the upcoming meeting of the V4 legislative leaders the next day, forcing the Slovak hosts to cancel the meeting.
Vystrčil hails from Fiala’s liberal-conservative, softly eurosceptic Civic Democratic Party (ODS), while Adamová leads the government’s junior coalition partner, the fiercely pro-European liberal-conservative TOP09.
According to Seznam Zprávy sources, the leaders of the two chambers of the Polish Sejm would not have attended the meeting either.
In reaction, the Speaker of Hungary’s unicameral parliament, László Kövér, regretted the postponement of the meeting, saying, “the remarks of the speakers of the Czech Parliament concerning our country are untrue and disrespectful, they do not correspond to the facts, and they call into question the right of the Hungarian government to shape its policy in the Hungarian national interest”, his office wrote in a statement on Thursday, EURACTIV’s media partner Telex reported.
The difference in approach to Hungary is the latest sign of politicians in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia struggling to rekindle a long history of regional cooperation and Budapest’s continuing refusal to sever economic ties with Moscow.
At the end of March, Slovakia, currently at the helm of the rotating regional grouping presidency, was forced to cancel the meeting between respective V4 defence ministers after Poland and Czechia pulled out.
“I think it is no secret that Hungary has a different approach than the other three V4 countries. However, and this is important, our dialogue has led to Hungary supporting all the key decisions in the EU negotiations so far,” the conservative Czech prime minister emphasised. He also added that keeping EU unity is crucial.
For Fiala, it will be the first high-level meeting of the V4 group since his appointment in November 2021.
“I will not prejudge the results of the negotiations. The important thing is that we talk to each other. The V4 at the highest level has not met in recent months. It is certainly a useful format that has proved its worth in the past,” Fiala concluded.
Source: euractiv.com
