The 'Visegrad Four' (V4: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) support Great Britain staying in the EU, the respective prime ministers concurred at the V4 summit held in Prague on Wednesday. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka stressed that Great Britain represents an important partner for the EU. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico hopes that Britons decide to stay in the union.

Fico, who is on his first official visit to the Czech Republic - which had to be postponed due to his heart operation in April - said: "If the British stay, we'll have to immediately implement an agreement between Great Britain and the EU. If they leave, not even God knows what will happen as we don't know the procedures". Fico added that all this may very well take place during Slovakia's Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The Union will also be influenced by the outcome of the European Summit set for the end of the month, at which time the European Commission's (EC) proposal to reform the Dublin Regulation protocol on collective responsibility for accepting migrants is expected to be discussed. It features a new system for migrant resettlement and sanctions for those countries that declined the mandatory migrant quotas.

"We're not hiding the fact that we have a problem with the quotas, therefore the next five-six months may also be influenced by it", said Fico. He added that he's a realist and even though Slovakia has its visions for the presidency, it remains modest. "It'd be a joke if I said that small but proud Slovakia wants to change the whole EU", he said.

Both a 'stay' or 'go' result in the upcoming Brexit will cause the EU headaches for several months, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) after a meeting with his Czech counterpart in Prague on Wednesday.

Gavin Shoebridge, Photo: TASR