V4 prime ministers discuss Coronavirus financial aid and EU multiannual financial framework

The Visegrad Four prime ministers met for their last summit under the current Czech presidency at Lednice Castle on Thursday, 11 June 2020 to discuss current issues and problems. The main topic was the preparation of a common stance on the future European budget and the EU multiannual financial framework.

Prime Ministers Andrej Babiš of the Czech Republic, Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Igor Matovič of Slovakia agreed that in the current emergency situation it is necessary to support our common European economy. The crisis affecting the EU pertains to all the Member States, but not all of them have sufficient instruments to cope with the crisis.

It will be essential for the V4 states that the Central European states are not disadvantaged when the funds from new reinforcement instruments are distributed. "Obviously, we take great interest in ensuring that these funds go to help all Member States and that we recover from this crisis as soon as possible. But it is probably going to take some time. We discussed these issues today. We discussed the fact that these additional funds should be fairly divided," stated Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. For example, he says that unemployment should not be a key criterion because its values in recent years were unrelated to the Coronavirus crisis. Conversely, the Czech Prime Minister considers a real drop in GDP an appropriate criterion.

Assistance for the European economy should also be flexible enough to meet the differing needs of every state. Prime Minister Babiš emphasised that the Member States know best where to use the funds. "What is important to us is that these funds which we are receiving are really provided for the programmes which we need. In our case, this is mainly the National Investment Plan. We need to receive money for investment and we need to be able to show the European Commission and the Member States exactly where that money ended up," Andrej Babiš remarked.

According to Babiš it is essential that the V4 Member States confirm a united stance towards the new EU multiannual financial framework. "We will enter negotiations with a clear common goal – to ensure that the next EU budget is set correctly so that it is fair and so that the post-Coronavirus reinforcement plan meets the needs of our economies," added Andrej Babiš.