Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) will not participate in Wednesday’s summit of the European Union (EU) and the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf (GCC) in Brussels. It is changing its program, the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic confirmed.
16.10.2024 14:02 , updated: 15:35
“Due to another work schedule, the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic will travel to the summit on Thursday (October 17) in the early hours of the morning. On Wednesday, Slovakia will be represented by the permanent representative of the Slovak Republic to the European Union, Juraj Nociar,” explained the press department of the Central Committee of the Slovak Republic.
After Wednesday’s summit, a meeting of the European Council is scheduled for Thursday (October 17) in Brussels. During the two-day meeting, EU leaders will discuss developments in the Middle East, competitiveness, migration and foreign issues. Prime Minister Fico should already participate in this.
On Wednesday, the prime minister spoke about the topics of the European Council’s negotiations at a meeting of the Committee of the Slovak National Council for European Affairs.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, also indicated in Wednesday’s letter to the heads of governments and EU countries that the originally two-day October summit, scheduled for October 17 and 18, will last only one day. In his invitation specifying the main topics of the negotiations, he only talks about the date of October 17. The Brussels correspondent TASR informs about it.
The reason for shortening the program may also be the fact that, before the traditional October summit, Michel convened the first-ever meeting of the EU-Gulf Cooperation Council (EU-GCC) on Wednesday. It is customary for the President of the European Council to specify the program of debates for both working days in his letter of invitation, which he did not do now.
In his letter to EU leaders, Michel stressed that Ukraine would be central to the discussions, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlining his proposed victory plan. He added that the leaders will focus on the EU’s financial commitment to Ukraine in order to provide it with approximately 45 billion euros by the end of the year to support military, budgetary and reconstruction needs, and will evaluate the forms of support for Ukraine before the approaching winter.
He also explained that the debates focused on the situation in the Middle East will be about the “dramatic escalation of tensions” and the worsening of the humanitarian situation. According to him, the main priorities remain the immediate ceasefire and the release of the hostages, while the EU must more decisively promote de-escalation and insist on compliance with international and humanitarian law, as well as the inadmissibility of attacks on UN peacekeepers.
In the area of competitiveness and economic resilience, Michel specified that the goal of the EU leaders is to prepare the ground for the successful implementation of the agreement on competitiveness, the parameters of which were defined during the April summit in Brussels.
The President of the European Council wrote that he expects a “strategic exchange of views” between the leaders of individual member countries on the subject of migration. He added that it is necessary to focus on concrete measures to prevent illegal migration, including strengthened control of the Union’s external borders, strengthening partnerships with third countries and streamlining the return policy.
Michel pointed out that there are also several political issues related to the EU’s international relations on the working table, including the situation in Moldova and Georgia, which in these weeks are facing key elections that can decide their European direction.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
