The Maltese want to build on the achievements of the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council, European Commission Vice-president for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič told TASR on Wednesday as part of the ceremonial inauguration of the Maltese presidency. With effect from 1. January 2017, Malta took over from the Slovak Republic the six-month long Presidency of the EU Council. Malta will follow up on Slovakia's work on the migration issue, which is the main priority of the island nation currently exposed to migrant flows. The Maltese authorities also noted that at the beginning of February the country wants to organise an informal summit of EU leaders like the one that took place in Bratislava in September 2016.
According to the Czech president Miloš Zeman, the Slovak EU Presidency has changed the overall attitude towards migration crisis, and was therefore successful. In an exclusive interview for the TASR news agency, Zeman stated that the presidency presented a more positive image not only of the Slovak Republic, but of all four Visegrad countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary). According to the Czech president, the Visegrad countries were in the past unjustly accused of breaking European solidarity. "Now it turns out, that we were right," stated Zeman.
