The heads of state of the Visegrad Four group ended their meeting in Karlovy Vary. The presidents of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary agreed a common course of action for 2011 and voiced their determination to continue the current and beneficial cooperation within the V4 group which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in February next year.
At the end of the summit, Václav Klaus, Ivan Gašparovič, Bronisław Komorowski and Pál Schmitt said their priorities for the next year would include issues of energy security, as well as coordination of action and cooperation in integrating socially excluded Roma communities.
The subject of future cooperation between the V4 countries, and also vis-à-vis the EU, in addressing the issues concerning Roma population was brought up by Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič at the meeting of V4 presidents in Karlovy Vary. "None of the countries facing this problem is able to handle it by itself in the future. It is necessary to initiate and find, within the entire EU, a way or a system of how to communicate with the other side, and how to put them in a position when they will be able to accept the offered assistance as cooperation," President Ivan Gašparovič emphasised.
In this connection, according to Hungarian President Pál Schmitt, Hungary and other countries facing problems with Roma inclusion must strive to ensure that Roma attend schools and receive jobs, and that majority population free itself from prejudice. The same applies to Roma participation in the political life.
"Schengen moved the Roma issue from the country level to the pan-European level – which is a new thing in the Roma issue over the past few years. To follow this line of thought, had there been no Schengen, there would have been no exodus of Roma to France, obviously. So these things are related," Václav Klaus explained his opinion on the Roma issue.
At a NATO Summit to be held in Lisbon in 14 days, the presidents of the Visegrad Four group intend to continue discussion on issues brought up during the V4 summit in Karlovy Vary. Next year, Hungary and, later on, Poland will take over the V4 presidency from the Slovak Republic.
