Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and his Hungarian counterpart appreciated at the V4 summit in Prague yesterday that the Visegrad Four (V4) countries, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, had filled important posts in the new European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen. They said the Visegrad Group would play a significant role in the new EC, which they considered a success of the V4 joint negotiations.
Polish EU Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski is in charge of agriculture in the new EC, Hungarian Laszlo Trocsanyi is the Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner, while Czech Vera Jourova has got the post of Vice-president for Values and Transparency and Slovak Maros Sefcovic has become the Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Commissioner.
Morawiecki said the success would not have been as significant if the V4 had not pulled together. It is apparent how significant a role the V4 group will play, he added.
He also appreciated that V4 countries would have two EC vice-presidents and would be in charge of agriculture and enlargement, which the Visegrad Group considered so important.
Orban shared this view. Compared to the previous EC, the V4's importance would rise in the next four years, he said. The Slovak portfolio is one of the most important ones in the whole EC, he added.
Slovak PM Peter Pellegrini stressed during today's talks of the V4 with the Western Balkan countries that it was crucial that the enlargement commissioner's post would go to the representative of a country supporting the EU enlargement.
Orban and Czech PM Andrej Babis also critically commented on the EC's migration policy pursued so far.
Europe is standing at a historical crossroads where societies full of immigrants and those with a lower immigration share exist together, Orban said.
He expressed hope that the new Commission would admit the two approaches to life and would not try to impose its approach on others.
Babis called on the delegates to look out of the windows of Prague Castle at the heritage the Czech ancestors had built. "This is our heritage, we will defend it and we will defend our way of life," he said.
Babis also said he cannot see a reason why someone should force their way of life upon Czechs. "We will decide on who will live in our country and no people smugglers' mafia will decide it for us," he pointed put.
