Brussels, 06/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Prime Ministers of the four candidate countries of the "Visegrad countries" (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) reiterated their determination to continue and strengthen their regional co-operation, not only in last phase of EU accession but also in their position as future Member States - following the example of the Benelux countries and countries from the Nordic Council. During a joint meeting on Thursday in Krynica Gorska (Poland), the four Heads of Government asserted that the Visegrad group would be maintained after EU enlargement and that it could play an important and useful co-ordinating role for co-operation between the four countries within the enlarged Union.
According to the Czech prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla, the Krynic Gorska meeting had also achieved another agreement in principle on the chronological order of the referendums on EU accession in the four respective countries: thus the country will begin, at the beginning of next year to obtain a higher rate of public support for accession, then followed by the country foreseeing the second highest rate of support and so on, in a way that will get the most sceptical sections of the population to ultimately give the issue more thought. "The Prime Ministers reached the decision which is worthwhile envisaging. The dates for the referendums have not yet, however, been fixed", explained Mr Spidla at the end of the meeting. Spring or summer 2003 appears to be the most likely period for holding the referendums in the different candidate countries. (See EUROPE 29 August p 3 on the subject of TEAM criticism of this approach, according to which these referendums will first of all occur in Hungary then in Slovakia, followed by Poland and then finally the Czech Republic.