Luxembourg, 06/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The first summit between the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) and the Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia), held on 5 December in Luxembourg, focused on the future of Europe as its main theme. In a press release, the participants mainly expressed their support for "gradual constitutionalisation of the Union" and restated that "those candidate countries which have concluded accession negotiations with the Union will be invited to participate in the next Intergovernmental Conference". The Prime Ministers and the Foreign Ministers of the seven countries decided to "continue an informal and regular exchange of views on subjects of common interest and to deepen political dialogue on the level of Ministers and civil servants", with the aim of bringing positions closer on foreign policy and security issues and on questions related to the future of Europe. In addition, they convened a meeting of experts for 2002, to identify the fields in which closer collaboration could be identified. Above all, they will examine how to involve the Visegrad Group countries in the implementation of decisions taken in the context of the Lisbon Process and in certain elements of the action plan to combat terrorism adopted by the extraordinary European Council on 21 September 2001.