Hungary’s House Speaker has said Europe can only preserve its role and weight in the world if cooperation within the European Union is made more effective in the future.
Following a meeting of Visegrad Group and Benelux colleagues in Piestany (Pöstyén), in western Slovakia, on Monday, László Kövér said the EU faces a number of obstacles to improving the effectiveness of cooperation among its member states.
The speaker said there were many disagreements on how to resolve this challenge and one possible solution was for EU institutions to “take a more modest approach” to their dealings with member states.
“Member states should be left to resolve the problems that they have the competencies to address,” Kövér said. The EU should only work on coming up with joint solutions to problems that actually concern pan-European interests, he added.
Kövér said the speakers were in agreement that member states would only overcome the obstacles to compromise through dialogue. This way, member states can identify the issues on which they are unlikely to reach an agreement.
Finally, the speakers also agreed that regional cooperation improves, rather than hinders, the effectiveness of the EU’s operations.