According to Czech President Miloš Zeman, the Visegrád Four countries should be united in supporting Poland and Hungary in their dispute with the European Commission over the EU budget. Zeman made these remarks after yesterday’s meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
After the meeting, which lasted about an hour, the Polish president said that discussions on an agreement are taking place. He introduced the first drafts of the agreement to Zeman and, according to Duda, the Czech president reacted very positively to the Polish and Hungarian proposals.
Poland and Hungary are threatening to veto next year’s EU budget over conditionality in drawing EU money on the rule of law.
At a press conference at which journalists could not ask any questions, Zeman recalled the period of the migration crisis, in which the Visegrád Four countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia successfully prevented the mandatory redistribution of migrants to individual EU countries by showing unity.
“Today, we should be equally united in supporting Poland as well as Hungary in the matter of the dispute with the European Commission,” said the Czech president. Facebook Czech President Zeman met with his counterpart Andrzej Duda. Zeman reiterated that he considers the European Commission to be an official body, but not a European government, which he said is the European Council.
“I welcome President Duda’s information that a compromise can be reached at the European Council and under the German presidency that would satisfy the interests of both the Polish and Hungarian sides,” Zeman added.
The presidents’ meeting began shortly after 2:00 p.m. According to photographs published by president’s spokesman, Jiří Ovčáček, the meeting was attended by others such as Chancellor Vratislav Mynář and the Director of Castle Diplomacy Rudolf Jindrák.
Title image: Czech President Miloš Zeman with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda. (Facebook)
