The leaders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic will discuss in Budapest on Thursday potential candidates for top jobs in the European Union coming up for grabs shortly, in a sign of regional coordination by the so-called Visegrad Four.
EU member states must pick new presidents of the executive European Commission, the European Council - which groups member states - the European Parliament and the European Central Bank.
The EU's ex-communist eastern members, which have joined the bloc since 2004, are keen to increase their representation in key posts and help steer the course of a continent long dominated by wealthy western states such as Germany and France.
"It will be an informal meeting which I cannot inform you further about," Bertalan Havasi, the press chief of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told Reuters, adding there was no plan for any press statement.
He declined to comment on possible eastern candidates for any of the top jobs, though Orban said last month the V4 countries would take a common stance on the issue.
Among the outgoing presidents of the main EU institutions, only Donald Tusk, president of the Council and a former Polish prime minister, hails from the ex-communist wing of the EU.
Bargaining over the jobs seeks to balance the interests of individual states and groups of countries as well as political parties. Southern European leaders convene in Malta on Friday, while Belgian premier Charles Michel also hosted a dinner last week to discuss details with select leaders.
EU leaders will meet on June 20-21 to haggle over the jobs.
The V4 countries take a tough stance on issues such as migration and are generally opposed to moves to concentrate more powers in EU institutions at the expense of national governments.
The right-wing natonalist governments in Hungary and Poland have clashed with Brussels over immigration and rule of law issues. Of the V4 countries only Slovakia uses the euro and the other three show no desire to ditch their national currencies.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
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