Talks of prime ministers of Visegrad Group countries (V4) featuring Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, started with assurances about mutual support for their Schengen area entry, energy security, and ways to counter global warming, however, it ended with a dispute over the fate of the EU Constitutional Treaty. At the meeting, Poland sought support among its V4 partners for its effort to change the voting model already anchored in the EU Constitutional Treaty to the system of majority voting according to the principle of weighted votes on the basis of the Treaty of Nice. However, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico labeled this priority of Poland as a thing that nobody understands and nobody is interested in. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany supported the opinion of Mr. Fico and said that there should be no more discussions about voting models but the model agreed upon in the constitutional treaty should be accepted. Mr. Fico wanted to focus his attention to more important things as jobs and competitiveness of Visegrad Group countries within the EU. As a reaction to this, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski resolutely demanded that his partners change their rhetoric, since if they come with such rhetoric to the summit of the EU, which will be held at the end of the month, an agreement will not be possible. Mr. Kaczynski said that such rhetoric reminds him of previous decades.
"You asked whether Slovakia will support the square root proposal [formula for number of votes a member state will have -- editor's note]. A television viewer will probably start looking surprised, asking whether he is in a conference of mathematicians or at a meeting of V4 prime ministers and the prime minister of Portugal," said Mr. Fico to a Polish journalist, who wanted to know whether Slovakia will support the Polish proposal for counting votes based on a formula using the square root of the number of inhabitants, which would be convenient not only for Poland but also for Slovakia than a voting model already approved by 27 countries, which in part already ratified the EU Constitutional Treaty, including the previous government of Poland. He thinks that this topic is so complicated, so difficult for the public to understand and so traumatizing for the EU, that is has to be wrapped up as soon as possible.
He stressed that the EU should return to topics, which are important from the viewpoint of standard social and economic life. The Slovak prime minister would like to know how, for example, the Lisbon strategy of social and economic development and catching up with the USA will be implemented in everyday life.
Mr. Fico, as well as Mr. Gyurcsany pointed to the principle of the international law pacta sunt servanda, which means that agreements and stipulations of parties to a contract must be observed. Also Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country will take over EU rotating presidency as of July 1, said that all EU member states signed the EU Constitutional Treaty in 2004. The basis for further talks should be what has already been agreed upon. "We had two years time for discussions. We will not open and discuss everything.
On the other hand, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek joined the opinion of Poland. "We are absorbed with compromise so that we support not only the Polish proposal but also the Dutch proposal, all British proposals and of course, the German one, as well.
Mr. Gyurcsany warned that it is easy to open any issue of the EU Constitutional Treaty, however, it is difficult to reach approval of 27 EU member states over the matter.
Mr. Socrates tried to reconcile the V4 partners. He reminded that if a compromise is not made, it will be a failure, which will harm the image of the EU in all areas including international relations.
Prime ministers of the Visegrad Group are meeting in Bratislava to mark the end of Slovakia's Visegrad Group rotating presidency. At the EU summit on June 21 and 22, EU member states will discuss the future of the EU Constitutional Treaty.
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