“We will discuss the situation in Ukraine, inflation and energy prices at the Visegrad Group summit in Košice on Thursday”, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki before the meeting. As he stressed, the Visegrad Group must work together in difficult times.

Among the topics of talks held by the heads of government of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia will be the European Commission’s proposals for a cap on gas prices. Brussels has set it at 275 euros per megawatt hour.

“We will certainly also discuss the situation in Ukraine, inflation imported from Russia, this inflation, which is a result of the prices of electricity, heat, gas or fuels, so the war in Ukraine, the difficult economic situation as well as the cooperation of the Visegrad Group”, Morawiecki enumerated.

The head of the Polish government added that he was glad to attend the first meeting of the Visegrad Group in several months, as the partners that make up the group must work closely together in these very difficult times. The meeting of the heads of government, to be held in Kosice, Slovakia, will be the first meeting of V4 prime ministers during the Slovakian chairmanship of the Visegrad Group.

In Helsinki on Sunday, Morawiecki announced that he and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia would ask Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Kosice to ratify quickly the accession documents that will allow Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

According to the Government Information Center, the meeting in Košice will help coordinate regional cooperation ahead of the upcoming European Council meeting, which is scheduled for December 15 and 16. The agenda for the meeting of EU leaders is expected to include the war on the ground in Ukraine and multidimensional support for the country, including the destruction of critical infrastructure and the resulting difficulties as winter approaches.

Arkadiusz Slomczynski