Press Advisories

8. 6. 201611:43

During its Presidency the Czech Republic organises fourth Summit of V4 Prime Ministers

On Wednesday 8 June 2016 the Černínský Palace in Prague will see as part of the Czech V4 Presidency the fourth Summit of the Prime Ministers of the Visegrad group of countries. The frequency of Prime Ministerial meetings of the Visegrad group has reached an exceptional level during the Czech Presidency.

During a single Visegrad presidency, which runs for 12 months from July to June there is normally one official closing summit in the spring and one informal session during the first half of the presidency.

The first meeting of V4 Prime Ministers during the Czech Presidency was the extraordinary summit on 4 September 2015, dealing with the migration and refugee crisis. At that meeting, the Prime Ministers adopted a declaration in which they defined a joint position to resolve migration questions and called for the protection of the EU’s external borders and a focusing of attention on solving the causes of migration into the EU.

At the second summit on 3 December 2015, the Korean President Madam Pak Kun-hje was invited as a guest. At that meeting a joint declaration was adopted on the intensive development of bilateral collaboration between Korea and the V4 countries.

The guests at the third summit, held on 15 February 2016, were the President of the Macedonian Republic Ďorge Ivanov and the Bulgarian Prime Minister Bojko Borisov. The main topic of the summit was resolving the migration crisis and support for countries lying on the West Balkan migration route. The outcome of this was a joint declaration on migration. Here the Prime Ministers also commemorated the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the Visegrad group and in their joint Prague declaration emphasised the historic contribution of the Visegrad group to overcoming the division of Europe and its role in building a strong, prosperous and democratic Europe.

During the Czech Presidency the V4 Prime Ministers have also met regularly on the fringes of meetings of the European Council. A series of further meetings also took place at individual Ministry level.