Berlin, July 25 (CTK correspondent) – Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Bavarian Minister President Markus Soder agreed on the need to effectively protect the EU external border at their talks during the opening of the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on Wednesday.
Babis and Soder also agreed that resolute action must be taken against people traffickers and the living conditions in the home countries of the migrants must be markedly improved.
The Czech Republic and Bavaria have long been critical of uncontrolled migration. Both Prague and Munich also frequently challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migration policy.
The two politicians discussed police cooperation as well as cooperation in science and research and transport infrastructure. A new Czech-Bavarian team will focus on space research.
They said they appreciated the positive development of the Czech-Bavarian relations in the recent years. “Our cooperation is at a high level and we want to do our utmost to maintain this trend in future,” they said in a joint statement.
Babis and Soder praised the good cooperation between the Bavarian and Czech police. However, they did not mention the newly established Bavarian border police, which met with Czech reservations according to CTK’s information.
The Bavarian border police will help the German federal police protect the border, also with the Czech Republic. Their another task will be the fight with border crime, primarily drug smuggling in this area.
From Bavaria, Babis will go to Austria to attend the music festival in Salzburg where he was invited by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Their talks are planned on this occasion to be focused on European issues as Austria is presiding over the EU in the second half of this year.
