President of the Slovak Republic on a Working Visit to the Czech Republic

President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič with his wife Silvia Gašparovičová met with the Czech presidential couple in Prague. At a working lunch hosted by President Václav Klaus and his wife on the occasion of the working visit of the Slovak head of state, they discussed mainly hot themes of parliamentary elections in both countries.

During the meeting, President Ivan Gašparovič declared the interest in continuing with the cooperation with the Czech Republic within the V4 structure, not only because of the preparation of Slovakia to join the Schengen countries. In addition, the talks included also evaluation of the conclusions of the 13th Summit of Presidents of Central and Eastern Europe. Both Presidents pointed out the inevitability to enlarge the European Union by other countries, including the Balkan countries. Their discussions also dealt with the future direction of the European Union and the Constitutional Treaty for Europe.

President Ivan Gašparovič emphasized the necessity to adopt the European constitutional document, in spite of its shortcomings, as he believes that this version is still better than adopting no document. President Ivan Gašparovič also met with dozens of Slovaks living in the Czech Republic. The program of the working visit of the Slovak President to the Czech Republic culminated by attending a concert of the Slovak Philharmonics given within the Prague Spring Festival.