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Hungary will hold the Presidency of the Visegrád Group between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018, assuming the presidency from Poland. In the upcoming year, we will face a number of significant events and challenges that will demonstrate the critical importance of regional cooperation.
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Hungarian Presidency 01.07.2017 - 30.06.2018

Speaker-level meetings

Informal Meeting of the Presidents and Speakers of V4 Parliaments, December 1st, 2017

Radek Vondrácek, Milan Stech, Kövér László, Stanislaw Karczewski és Andrej DankoBudapest was the venue for the first Meeting of the Presidents and Speakers of V4 Parliaments during the Hungarian V4 Presidency. At the invitation of László Kövér, the Meeting was attended by Stanisław Karczewski, Marshal of the Polish Senate, Andrej Danko, Speaker of the Slovak National Council, Milan Štěch, President of the Czech Senate, and Radek Vondráček, Speaker of the newly formed Czech House of Representatives (Marek Kuchciński, Marshal of the Polish Sejm attended the gala dinner hosted in the Royal Palace of Gödöllő on the previous evening). As the Meeting began, László Kövér, Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly welcomed his partners and thanked the participants for the successful joint implementation of the initiatives introduced by the Polish Presidency. He presented the goals and the programs planned for the Hungarian Presidency. At the Meeting, the Presidents and Speakers of Parliaments discussed potential ways to strengthen the representation of national parliaments in the EU’s institutional structure, and introduced ideas concerning possibilities for the enlargement of the European Union. László Kövér emphasized: the Hungarian Presidency wishes to continue the practice of regular consultations for Presidents and Speakers of Parliaments. The Formal Meeting of Presidents and Speakers will take place on 1st-2nd March 2018, and it is complemented by the meeting of the Committees on European Affairs (September 2017), the meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs, the meeting of the Committees on Social Welfare (December 2017), and the meeting of the Economic, Agricultural and Defence Committees (February 2018) of the different parliamentary chambers. In the framework for the cooperation of V4 Parliaments, the Hungarian National Assembly – beyond the meetings of committees – will also organise a working seminar and a conference in the first half of 2018, involving the representatives of academia and civil society. The agendas for the V4 Parliamentary Committee meetings will feature questions related to V4 cooperation and EU policy, while the working seminar and the conference are intended to discuss issues related to the European Union and the future of Europe. László Kövér proposed - as one of the topics for discussion at the working seminar and the conference - an exchange of ideas on the foundations for European values and consequently to adopt of a common stance against the persecutions of Christians. He pointed out: the Hungarian Presidency wishes to achieve that the V4 cooperation – as a brand – should appear in different policies in a positive way, putting forth constructive proposals. László Kövér also said that regular coordination among parliaments, the strengthening of their cooperation and a common stance adopted by the V4 on issues where the V4 position can be expressed internally within the EU and in the EU’s external relations as well are of fundamental importance. He highlighted that the changes having occurred across Europe in recent years necessitate the establishment of a V4 parliamentary rapid reaction group for the subsidiarity check of EU legislative proposals. The Speaker of the National Assembly asked his partners to support his proposal, who agreed to set up such a group at the level of the apparatus. The V4 Subsidiarity Group – with the appropriate political mandate and supervision – could play a decisive role in the development of the relations with EU institutions, especially in ensuring the flow of information. It could also play a role in following up on the activities of the task force established by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on November 14th, dedicated to dealing with Subsidiarity, Proportionality and "Doing Less More Efficiently" method. With the rapid reaction group, the V4 could give impetus to the identification and launching of the - currently as yet unformalised - green card initiative, intended to strengthen the active role of national parliaments – the Hungarian Speaker emphasized. When discussing the possibilities for the enlargement of the EU, he pointed out: the facilitation and acceleration of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration process of the West Balkan region is a question of strategic and security-policy importance for the whole of the European Union. The V4 together - but also at the level of its member states - wishes to be an engine for enlargement – he added. Hungary encourages the establishment of a predictable schedule for the EU accession of Serbia and Montenegro, so that Macedonia and Albania could receive a date for the start of their accession talks already next year, and would also like to allow Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo to see reachable goals in their integration process. He referred to the fact that Hungary has for long been a traditional and committed supporter of practical cooperation and cross-border infrastructural projects in the EU’s Eastern Partnership. Hungary agrees with the differentiated approach concerning Eastern Partnership policy and supports the approximation of countries able and willing to implement the reforms dictated by European integration. Referring to Ukraine’s new law on education, he, however, emphasized: the violation or any restriction of the acquired rights of minorities directly contradicts the requirements of „Europeanism”, thus Hungary – until the point when the restrictions introduced by the new law on education end – cannot support Ukraine’s political ambitions.
The Czech, Polish and Slovak Presidents and Speakers agreed with the proposals and points put forth by László Kövér and expressed their support for them.

 

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Committee-level meetings

Representatives of the V4 Parliaments’ Defence Committees convened in Budapest on 21-22nd February 2018 under the auspices of the parliamentary dimension of the V4 Hungarian Presidency.

Representatives of the V4 Parliaments’ Agricultural Committees convened in Budapest on 14-15th February 2018.

Representatives of the V4 Parliaments’ Economics Committees convened in Budapest on 7-8th February 2018.

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Events

V4 Summer Concerts on Kossuth Square in June

Annual Session of V4+ Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services 24-25 May 2018, Budapest

Workshop on the future of the European Union - Values in Budapest on 22-23 February 2018
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Preparation (01.07.2017 - 01.07.2016)

Speaker-level meetings

The Marshal of the Sejm of Poland Marek Kuchciński and the Marshal of the Senate of Poland Stanisław Karczewski convened a working meeting of V4 speakers of Parliament in Przemyśl on 3-4 December 2016. In addition to the hosts and Speaker Kövér, the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Andrej Danko, the President of the Czech Senate Milan Štěch and the Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Jaroslava Pokorná Jermanová also attended the meeting.

The agenda of the event included discussions concerning visions for the future of the European Union, including strengthening the roles national parliaments play, as well as practical proposals aimed at bolstering the recognition of V4 cooperation.

Marek Kuchciński, Marshal of the Sejm of Poland, and Stanisław Karczewski, Marshal of the Senate of Poland, hosted the presidents and speakers of V4 parliaments for an official meeting in Warsaw on 6-7 March 2017. In addition to the two hosts and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary László Kövér, Andrej Danko, Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic; Jan Hamáček, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic; and Milan Štěch, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic also participated in the meeting.  Following the event, the Hungarian Speaker also held bilateral talks with his Polish colleagues.

Committee-level meetings

Chair Zsolt Németh, Vice Chair Zsolt Csenger-Zalán and Árpád Velez represented the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament at the meeting held in Warsaw on 27-28 February 2017.

The agenda of the meeting featured discussions of the impacts of the European Union, the United States and Russia, as well as the presidency of Donald Trump, on Eastern policy; European security challenges; and questions related to the southern neighbourhood, migration, terrorism, the conflict in Syria and relations with Turkey.

Ľuboš Blaha, Chair of the Committee on European Affairs of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, hosted the European affairs committees of the V4 for a meeting in Bratislava on 21-23 May 2017. Chair Richárd Hörcsik, Vice Chairs Zoltán Tessely and Tibor Bana, along with senior advisor László Juhász, represented the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament.

The agenda of the meeting included three topics: the dual quality of foodstuffs, the future of the European Union and a discussion of the agenda items of the upcoming, 57th (LVII) COSAC (Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs) meeting.

Events

The Speaker of Parliament László Kövér held an informal meeting with Andrej Danko, Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, on 12 April 2017 in Esztergom. During their meeting, the two speakers reviewed inter-parliamentary relations and current topics in V4 cooperation. 
Deputy Speaker of Parliament János Latorcai participated in the Europe of the Carpathians Conference hosted in Krynica in southern Poland on 6-8 September 2016. Speakers of parliament from the V4 countries spoke at the opening session of the conference under the title “The Visegrád Group: Current Challenges and New Forms of Cooperation”.
A Szejm elnöke a magyar parlament elnökével közösen leleplezték a lengyel légiós és a magyar huszár emlékművétThe Speaker of Parliament was accompanied on his visit to Poland by Mrs. László Csúcs, the spokesperson for the Polish nationality in Parliament, and by Ministry of Agriculture Deputy State Secretary István Lóránt Szakáli.