Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki travelled to the Hungarian capital on Friday to take part in the Visegrad Group summit, where the attendees discussed the refugee crisis and economic issues.

He and his counterparts, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Slovakia’s Robert Fico and the Czech Republic's Andrej Babis, jointly issued a statement in support of the development of the European common market and against the compulsory relocation of refugees among EU member states.

The document said it was important to boost the competitiveness of the EU both on the bloc’s internal market as well as the global one. “In our opinion, [Europe’s] cohesion policy and competitiveness on the common market leads to greater social and economic convergence between the member states, which is conducive to the EU as a whole,” the signatories of the statement said.

The country leaders commented on the obligatory resettlement of refugees within the bloc. “Our experience has shown that only solutions adopted by way of compromise bring the best results in practice and are able to combat the [refugee] crisis,” they wrote. They added that the key goal was not to “relocate but to prevent the pressure of immigration in Europe.”

The authors of the statement said that while the European Commission should maintain its key role in outlining the general political trajectory and priorities for the bloc’s future, “the decisions taken by country leaders and governments cannot be ignored on the lower levels of the decision-making process.”

The V4 Group added that the European Union should follow the principle of “unity within diversity,” where “the identity... of the EU member states are respected.” (aba/pk)

Source: IAR, PAP