There have and always will be social, economic and institutional reason for which Central Europe is different from Western Europe and these factors are coalescing into a new Central European identity, Kovács said on national televison M1.
He said the Visegrád cooperation (between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) is a very good example of this separate identity. These countries share a heritage – including “fifty years of Communism” – that makes them see things similarly.
Kovács also said that while the 2015 migration crisis was instrumental in the four countries finding a common voice, there is also an increasing number of social, economic and institutional reasons making it possible that the states of Central Europe have a common voice and also demand to be accepted as equals (with the other member states of the European Union). He said several recent studies have also indicated that such an identity is being born.
He was speaking about this related to the news that after the three other Visegrád countries the Slovak parliament rejected the U.N. migration pact and consequently Slovakia will not attend the ratification of the pact in Morocco this December. Slovak foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak – as he had indicated in advance – resigned in protest of the decision.
Lajcak was President of the U.N. General Assembly when the migration pact was adopted.
