BRATISLAVA, October 7, (WEBNOVINY) — Presidents of the four Visegrad Group countries (V4)– Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are meeting at a two-day summit meeting in Budapest starting on Friday, October 7, to mark the 20th anniversary of the group. On the first day, presidents Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, Pal Schmitt of Hungary, Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland and Ivan Gasparovic of Slovakia will attend and address a conference entitled “The Economy and Prospects of Central Europe” at Budapest’s Corvinus University.
Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic is to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts on Friday afternoon, the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic further reported. Main talks will be held the next day in Visegrad. The presidents are to dedicate attention to the results and importance of twenty years of cooperation between the V4 countries. They will discuss issues suggested by the summit’s host, President Pal Schmitt: V4 on the crossroads of macroregions, factors affecting our presence and future, the place of the region in the world, concrete possibilities of cooperation and regional projects, key aspects of energy supply in our region, including security, efficiency, competitiveness, research and development, and civic cooperation within the Visegrad Group.
The Visegrad Group was established on February 15, 1991 in the Hungarian town of Visegrad by the top representatives of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel, Polish President Lech Walesa and Hungarian Premier Jozsef Antall signed a declaration where they committed their countries to intensify regional cooperation and strengthen the identity of this region in central Europe. V4’s cooperation is not institutionalized; it has no central administration or headquarters. On the political level, it is based on the principle of regular meetings of its representatives at several levels from presidents and prime ministers to foreign ministers and expert consultations. Official summit of premiers is held annually. In the period between the summits, one country presides the group. In June, 2010, the presidency of Hungary finished and as of July 1, 2010 until June 30, 2011, V4 has been presided by Slovakia. The last summit took place in July 2010 in Budapest.
SITA