Poland wants to establish Assembly including the Visegrad Four, Romania and Ukraine
The Marshall of the Sejm of Poland, Marek Kuchciński, said in Truskavets that at the Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój (Poland), Polish representatives plan to propose the establishment of an Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Visegrad Four countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) and two neighboring countries of the Carpathian region - Romania and Ukraine,” as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
"We want to offer our colleagues from the Czech Republic and Hungary to establish a joint Assembly with Ukraine and Romania in an arrangement with our four countries," he said.
At the same time, Kuchciński admitted that such an issue can be discussed prior to the forum in July of this year.
According to him, the Carpathian countries should strengthen cooperation in order to develop infrastructure and to improve the economic situation in the region. He added that Ukraine should increase a number of the checkpoints on their border with the EU countries.
"At the moment, this cooperation is very weak. We have to set a goal – to increase the number of border crossing checkpoints and improve infrastructure between Ukraine and Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania and Ukraine and Poland," Kuchciński said.
The Polish Sejm spokesperson stated that on July 1, 2016, Poland obtains the Visegrad Group Presidency.
At the same time, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, after a bilateral meeting with Kuchciński, spoke about a major opportunity to enhance cooperation between Carpathian countries.
“It was generally understood that we see a major opportunity to enhancing our interregional cooperation. There is a great potential for economic, transport and security improvements," Parubiy said.
The 25th Anniversary Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój is expected to take place between the 8th and 10th of September this year. The Forum will be attended by about 3,000 guests from Europe, Central Asia and the U.S.A.