Brussels, June 28 (CTK) – French President Emmanuel Macron showed understanding for the stance of the Visegrad Group (V4) on migration at his talks with the Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak prime ministers before the opening of an EU summit focusing on migration affairs on Thursday, according to CTK’s sources.
The diplomats said the 45-minute talks were calm and constructive and Macron, Viktor Orban, Mateusz Morawiecki, Andrej Babis and Peter Pellegrini shared the view that the EU member states in which migrants get registered first should bear the main responsibility for them, in accordance with the EU rules.
The talks between the Visegrad Group and France removed the tension in the dispute about migration, they indicated.
“At the beginning, Macron explained it very well that he does not criticise us for anything, that he understands our position, that he does not want to enforce any quotas on us and that he does not want to waste any time on a debate on the quotas,” Czech state secretary for EU affairs Ales Chmelar said.
“He wants to speak about the affairs on which we agree, which is the protection of the EU outer border,” he added.
Chmelar said the V4 countries and France had agreed on further cooperation on the expert level.
Italy, which is burdened by migrants coming from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea more than other countries, demands that all the member countries should share in the responsibility.
According to CTK’s information, the French side told the V4 representatives that there are various forms of solidarity with countries that carry the heaviest burden within the migration crisis.
Macron also said no EU country should think that the migration affairs do not concern it and an effort to deal with migration without European cooperation cannot be successful.
