On Monday, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFA) of the Slovak Republic, Marek Eštok, represented Slovakia in Brussels at the meeting of the Council of the European Union (EU) for general affairs and at the conference of the countries of the Vyšehrad Group dedicated to the multi-year financial framework of the EU. TASR was informed about this by the communications department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic.
- State Secretary Marek Eštok represented Slovakia in Brussels.
- The negotiations included the preparation of the December meeting of the European Council.
- They discussed EU enlargement and economic challenges.
Before the meeting of the EU Council, Eštok participated in the seventh session of the Intergovernmental Conference between the European Union and Albania, where the last cluster of accession negotiations focused on natural resources, agriculture and cohesion was opened.
Albania’s positive progress
“Albania managed to open all six clusters of accession chapters in just 13 months, which confirms the positive dynamics of the accession process and enables the transition to a new phase – preliminary closing of chapters. I firmly believe that Albania’s progress on the road to the European Union will have a motivating effect on other candidate countries as well,” said the state secretary.
Ministers and state secretaries at the EU General Affairs Council meeting discussed the preparation of the December European Council meeting, which will focus on developments in Ukraine and the Middle East, the EU’s multiannual financial framework for the years 2028 to 2034, enlargement, migration, the economy and competitiveness issues.
Energy crisis and Industry
“I once again emphasized the need to find an effective and sustainable way to reduce energy prices, in the shortest possible time frame, otherwise we will witness the transfer of industrial production from Europe,” assessed Eštok.
The enlargement process will also be one of the topics of the December summit of EU leaders. According to the press release of the MZVEZ, the Slovak Republic welcomes the inclusion of these issues among the EU’s priorities and positively assesses that the accession process from 2024 has accelerated more than in the previous 15 years.
The representatives of the member states discussed the current state of the prepared European budget and presented their positions on the first spending chapter for Economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture and the countryside.
Slovakia promotes N+3
“Slovakia promotes favorable implementation conditions, especially the preservation of the N+3-year rule for drawing funds from the EU budget, as well as the preservation of strong and traditional policies, such as the cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy,” stated Eštok.
Marek Eštok then participated in the conference of the Vyšehrad Group at the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the International Vyšehrad Fund. Representatives of the V4 countries talked about the importance of joint coordination in the negotiations on the future European budget for the years 2028 to 2034.
The importance of cooperation V4
“Common interests can always be more easily promoted within the 27 EU member states when we join together with like-minded partners and thus gain greater negotiating power. I believe that intensive communication will take place within the V4 at all levels – expert and political, in order to promote interests for the benefit of Slovakia and its citizens,” declared the Slovak state secretary in the panel discussion.
