V4 on EU budget in Brussels

On Thursday, Slovakia's Representation to the EU in Brussels hosted a meeting organised by the Hungarian V4 presidency. Deputy Premier for Investment and Informatisation Richard Raši expressed Slovakia's will, also shared by other V4 countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, to see an "ambitious" multi-year budget for the EU, balanced in terms of new challenges and preserving traditional policies, including cohesion and agricultural policies. Raši stressed that if cuts in cohesion funding were made, this might thwart efforts to remove regional disparities and salary differences among member countries. According to the State Secretary for European Union Affairs at the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office, Szabolcs Takacs, the V4 countries are ready to contribute more towards the 2021-27 EU budget, while they believe that the financial framework should take into account all challenges (migration, security, digitisation and innovations) and respect the interests of individual countries as well.