House Speaker László Kövér said giving a boost to the Western Balkan countries’ integration into the European Union will be a priority for the Hungarian presidency of the Visegrad Group (V4), to start in July.
Kövér told a meeting of V4 speakers of parliament in Wrocław that the Hungarian presidency will host meetings of V4 parliamentary speakers in July, September and next March. In September, it will be combined with a meeting of Western Balkan House speakers. The Hungarian presidency, he said, would coordinate the work done by lawmakers in the Visegrad countries in preparation for European conferences. The V4 countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — will have a better chance of asserting their interests if they coordinate their positions on the future of Europe and disclose them as a group.
Kövér said the Hungarian presidency will lay stress on protecting the cultural heritage and the identity of central Europe. Further, the four countries are committed to developing regional defense cooperation. The participants have approved a nine-point declaration on a variety of issues, including the situation in Belarus, the EU integration of Western Balkan countries and the Eastern Partnership policy.