Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico signs the Warsaw Declaration, as his counterparts from Czech Republic, Bohuslav Sobotka (l), Hungary, Viktor Orbán (center), and Poland, Beata Szydlo (r), watch behind. (source: AP/TASR)
Having made the choice to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom should make good on all of its commitments towards it, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico after meeting his Czech, Hungarian and Polish counterparts at a Visegrad Group (V4) summit in Warsaw on March 28.
In their talks on Brexit among other matters, the prime ministers singled out two issues that are of paramount interest to them vis-à-vis Brexit – the standing of V4 citizens working in the UK post-Brexit and the UK’s observance of commitments deriving from EU membership, the TASR newswire reported.
“I’m speaking about 80,000 people from Slovakia alone, and we’re looking to receive assurances that these people won’t be treated as second-class inhabitants of the UK after Brexit,” said Fico, as quoted by TASR.
He then turned to the UK’s obligations.
“This is also what we’re greatly interested in seeing, especially in terms of the multiannual financial framework that is due to expire in 2020,” the Slovak PM continued. “All we want is to ensure that the country that has chosen to leave the EU will deliver on all of its commitments.”
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka noted that there is a need to watch out for possible changes on the UK’s labour market during the next two years involving Brexit talks, as the UK continues to be a full-fledged EU-member country for now.
“As a result, the UK shouldn’t make any decisions imposing restrictions on our workers because that would run counter to the EU’s principles,” said Sobotka, as quoted by TASR.
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stated that the V4 countries care about ensuring that relations with the UK are good and that the UK remains an important partner for the EU, as reported by TASR.
