Prague, Jan 26 (CTK) – The Czech Republic will convoke an extraordinary summit of the Visegrad Four Group (V4), comprised also of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, for February 15 to deal with the migrant crisis, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said yesterday.
The V4 countries’ heads of government will debate a better protection of the Schengen system and possibly the creation of a reserve borderline on the level of Bulgaria and Macedonia.
The EU summit on migration is to take place three days later.
Sobotka said with their help so far, the V4 countries had shown interest in the EU successfully handling the migrant crisis.
“An active Visegrad approach is still our objective,” he added.
“This is why along with the prime ministers of Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, I want to discuss measures that will enhance the protection of the outer Schengen border at the extraordinary summit,” Sobotka said.
An increased policing of the border between Macedonia and Greece and that between Bulgaria and Greece is one of the options, he added.
“I want to prepare a contingency plan along with our friends from the V4 for the event that the agreements with Turkey are not fulfilled and Greece keeps failing in the border protection,” Sobotka said.
This year’s 25th anniversary of the V4 establishment will be another topic on the agenda of the February summit.
On the occasion, the prime ministers will make an evaluation of their cooperation in the past 25 years and discuss the prospects of the group, including coordination of its joint position on Britain’s reform plans.
The previous meeting of the V4 heads of government was held in Prague in early December, 2015. They agreed that any proposals for creating “a mini-Schengen” were unacceptable and rejected further direct or indirect attempts to limit the free movement of people within the European Union.
However, even V4 representatives have admitted a regulation of the Schengen area of late.
Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (CSSD) told CTK last week that Europe must have a plan B in case it failed to reduce the influx of migrants.
Even a shifting of the border line protected by the EU comes into consideration, he said.
“A reserve border system” along the Bulgaria-Macedonia line has been mentioned most frequently, which would actually mean to exclude Greece form Schengen. However, there are allegedly some northern alternatives of the borderline as well.
In January, the V4 countries’ interior ministers debated migration in the Czech Republic, which is presiding on the Visegrad Group now.
In a joint memorandum, they again rejected the obligatory refugee quotas and preferred the fulfilment of the commitment to launch functioning hotspots along the EU outer border.
