Press Advisories

7. 2. 201917:11

V4 Prime Ministers met in Bratislava with German Chancellor Merkel

On Thursday, 7 February 2019, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš attended the summit of the Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group countries in Bratislava. This time they also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The main topics were European policies and modern technology. Andrej Babiš and V4 Prime Ministers spoke about the priorities of the Visegrad Group.

The summit of the Visegrad Group Prime Ministers Andrej Babiš, Peter Pellegrini, Viktor Orbán and Mateusz Morawiecki started by a joint working lunch of the V4 Prime Ministers with the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel. The Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland spoke to the Chancellor about the future of the European Union, the new multi-annual financial framework and external relations and migration. They also adopted a joint declaration on the 30th anniversary of the fall of Communist regimes in Central Europe.

“The Czech Republic, like other countries, commemorates 30 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain. On this occasion, we have adopted a joint declaration. I think 30 years is quite a long time and it is important to remind the fall of the Communist regime, especially to young people, who cannot imagine what it means to have no freedom of movement or speech. This must be reminded and this year is a great opportunity for this”, said the Czech Prime Minister.

One of the key themes of the Summit was modern technology and innovation. All attendees agreed on the importance of using new technologies for Europe’s future competitiveness. Together they will work to make the European Union more focused on their support, including artificial intelligence. In this respect, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš mentioned the recently approved strategy “Digital Czechia” and the preparation of a national strategy for artificial intelligence. According to Prime Minister Babiš, the Czech Republic should be a European leader in this sector.

The V4 Prime Ministers and the German Chancellor also spoke about current priorities of mutual cooperation, such as helping Morocco. “The biggest influx of migrants is from Morocco and we are planning a concrete project whose funding will be transparent and the beneficiary State will know the money came from the Czech Republic”, said Andrej Babiš.

The next V4 summit will be held this month. Together with Israel, the V4 countries will discuss cooperation in innovation, science, research, cybersecurity and water management.

The Czech Republic is preparing for its presidency of the Visegrad Group, which will start on 1 July of this year, taking over from Slovakia.