The Visegrad Group will take a leading role in the creation of a strong Europe, the Parliamentary State Secretary Péter Szijártó told a conference on Monday.
Addressing the opening of a conference on Visegrad cooperation 25 years after the change in political system held within the framework of the Antall Jozsef Summer University, he pointed out that to the realignment of the global economy and politics, the V4's answer was a Europe which is competitive again, restores respect for labour and which is capable of taking matters into its own hands. Further, the V4 group wants a Europe which respects families rather than relativising the concept and also honours the bloc's member states. "Without strong member states there is no strong European Union," he emphasised.
The V4 grouping under its Hungarian presidency in the past year strengthened cooperation in several areas, he noted. These include energy security, building the north-south energy corridor and linking the Hungarian and Slovak gas networks. The four countries have taken significant steps forward in security policy, too, he added. The defence ministers of the V4 countries agreed to stop the reduction in defence budgets, he said.
They also agreed to strengthen cooperation between small and medium-sized companies (SME), to advance the joint lobby for external markets and parliamentary cooperation had got under way, Mr Szijjártó stated.
Addressing the conference, the former prime ministers of the V4 agreed that it had been an "important and good decision" to create the group, which proved that it could operate also in an extended form of European cooperation.
Karel Schwarzenberg, former Czech prime minister, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, former Polish prime minister and Mikulas Dzurinda, former Slovak prime minister attended the event, where the moderator was Géza Jeszenszky, Hungary's former foreign minister and current ambassador to Norway.
The summer university has been organised for the second time to open up dialogue between students and teachers of different cultures.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
