Prime Ministers (from left) Robert Fico, Donald Tusk, Petr Necas, and Viktor Orban, of Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary respectively, at the V4 summit in Prague, 21.06.2012 Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz
Report by John Beauchamp.
The main agenda of the Polish year-long running of the group, known as the V4 – which comprises the central European countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary – will aim at energy security concerns, with calls for greater cohesion funds in an attempt to kick-start the region’s economy.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who took part in Friday’s Visegrad Summit, stated “well spent money on cohesion policy is the key to the economic growth which is now needed in Europe.”
“Financial responsibility and fiscal discipline will only be possible when a real agenda for growth is found,” he added at a press conference after the meeting, as reported by the PAP news agency.
All the Visegrad Prime Minsters supported the idea to form a regional alliance before next week’s Brussels summit, with a common call for greater cohesion funds, and sent a letter to EU leaders outlining their stance.
“Anyone who appeals for growth in Europe must at the same time underline the importance of cohesion funds,” the Polish government head said after the meeting.
Tusk’s words were echoed by Robert Fico, Slovakia’s Prime Minister, who said that “we are not able to guarantee growth without breaking down regional differences,” as well as Viktor Orban, the Hungarian PM, who added that the EU “should leave cohesion funds alone.”
Fico is also set to host a meeting in Bratislava on cohesion policy in the coming future, Polish PM Donald Tusk said, PAP reports.
High stakes
On a national level, Poland – the largest economy in the V4 – maintained 4.3 percent GDP growth in 2011 according to national statisticians, the highest figure in the European Union. But as the present EU budget comes to an end, so too may the much-needed funding that has fuelled the Polish economy since it joined the bloc in 2004.
With the EU’s new financial perspective launching in just eighteen months, all V4 countries agreed that cohesion funds, which are expected to total some 376 billion euros in the 2014-2020 EU budget, would be a boon for the region.
Poland has its eyes on a large portion of the money up for grabs. In May this year, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily revealed that Poland had managed to spend three-quarters of its current long-term budget allowance – an amount exceeding 47.2 billion euro – the country also hopes to receive some 80 billion euro over the next budget period.
Deeper and deeper…
Yet while Tusk’s talk of cohesion funds and fiscal sobriety rang clear, the Czech Republic’s conservative Prime Minister Petr Necas warned of hasty decisions that may arise at the forthcoming EU summit, which is billed to concentrate on budgetary issues and deeper political integration.
Speaking on deepening EU integration, Necas is reported by the Czech news agency CTK as saying that EU would not conceivably rush through legislation based on “some documents distributed right there or those brought closely before the summit.”
Necas added that any specific proposals, once ready, would take time to deliberate, and added that V4 ministers did not feel that a concrete decision will have to be taken in the matter at next week’s gathering on 28-29 June.
“Slovakia supports the proposals for a higher degree of integration, but the devil is always hidden in details,” Prime Minister Robert Fico is reported to have said.
Defence and energy plans
Meanwhile, one of the other key priorities of Poland’s presidency of the Visegrad Group is a cooperative security policy, dubbed ‘smart defence’.
“After the efforts of the Czech presidency, it is time to take the next ambitious step to strengthen common defence and joint operations,” Donald Tusk underlined.
The V4 Prime Ministers also turned their attention to energy security, and shared their support for the development of the so-called ‘energy mix’ of nuclear and coal power.
The heads of government also reiterated the need to build a network of oil and gas interconnectors, some of which are part of the long-planned north-south gas pipeline, set to connect the two LNG ports of Swinoujscie in Poland with the island of Krk in Croatia.