Ministers of the Visegrád countries and Slovenia responsible for European integration and for cohesion policy adopted a joint declaration on the package of legislations dealing with the future of cohesion policy on 11-12th October 2012 in Katowice, Poland. Following the meeting, Enikő Győri, Minister of State for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Visegrád countries and Slovenia together constitute a substantial force.

Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia wish to develop an agreement, which also respects national and regional interests – said Minister of State Győri, who represented Hungary at the session. According to the Minister of State, this can only be achieved through continuous consultation. To prove her point, she highlighted that “parts of the package, which have been agreed on, already reflect the cooperation of the Visegrád countries”.

According to Minister of State Győri, the main message of the meeting is that the V4 countries and Slovenia “are partners when it comes to spending the funds, defined until 2020, very efficiently and according to the EU objectives”. Everyone has to concentrate on crisis management, on promoting growth and job creation. Concerning the EU debate in reducing the amount of cohesion funds, the Minister of State underlined that the Visegrád countries and Slovenia would not like if the “better spending” would mean less spending.

At the same time, the five countries consider it important that “Member States should be given a free hand in both planning and implementation” because everyone knows their own individual needs the best. In this respect, the statement also discusses the issue of the central regions, which require special regulations because of the special character.

Minister of State Győri highlighted that among others, the meeting also discussed the rate of co-financing, the part of the projects financed by the EU, which is extremely important, when it comes to cohesion policy.Currently the beneficiary countries are only covering 15% of the costs and according to the participants of the extended V4 meeting, they are unable to assume a larger burden during the economic crisis, while there is a very strong trend in the EU in favour of reducing the its co-financing rate.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)