Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico addresses the European Parliament during a debate in Strasbourg, France, December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary and Slovakia will ask the European Commission in a joint motion to consider legal means to eliminate “double standards in quality” of food products sold by companies in Eastern Europe and in the west, Hungary’s agriculture ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said the two countries would submit the motion at the March 6 meeting of the EU’s farm and fishery council, according to a statement carried by national news agency MTI.

Hungary also welcomed a Slovak proposal that the Visegrad Four countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - should hold a meeting as soon as possible about the issue, the ministry said.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Monday the Visegrad group prime ministers would discuss food quality at a summit in Warsaw on Thursday.

He said the problem needed a European solution and the Commission should get involved.

Central European countries have called in the past few weeks for the EU to ban using inferior ingredients in products sold under the same brand in some EU markets, a practice that is legal as long as the ingredients are declared on the packaging.