Visegrád Group

Fico again called for electricity prices to be decoupled from gas prices and backed delaying the EU's ETS2 emissions trading system beyond 2030.

Agriculture ministers from the Visegrad Four and four other EU countries met in Bratislava to strengthen regional cooperation on farming and food production this week.

The WEFOR Plus Four gathering hosted by Slovakia under its WEFOR Presidency included Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia, with Italy attending as a special guest.

The ministers seeked common positions on shared challenges.

Dimitru also met Slovak Parliamentary Speaker Richard Rashi, who voiced Slovakia's support for Cyprus joining the Schengen Area.

Slovak Agriculture Minister Richard Takács on Monday welcomed his counterparts from the Visegrad 4 and four other EU countries for a ministerial meeting in Bratislava.

The V4 plus 4 format brings together Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Poland, along with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia.

Italy's Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida is attending as a special guest.

Uh, and he's trying to still honor commitments to some of these frontline, if you will, European states.

In 2017, I proposed empowering the Visegrád Four and the Nordic Battle Group, um, which they didn't do, but it looks like this is some variation of that play, um, as a purely defensive measure.

Um, I, I think that that's okay, fine, you're gonna do that.

I think we're beyond that now, though.

The Finance Ministry says the regulation targets station margins, not retail prices themselves, and is intended to prevent excessive or artificial price increases.

The ministry says diesel prices in Slovakia were the fourth lowest in the European Union last week and the lowest among the Visegrad Four.

Separately, from the 1st of October, second-class train fares will be cut by half for 30 days, while the government has also offered support to municipalities dealing with bus fares.

The Slovak national football team strengthened its case for promotion with two home victories and is currently making steady progress toward promotion to League B of the UEFA Nations League.

and wished all those injured a speedy recovery.

On Thursday, it was announced that a 13-year-old victim of the attack had succumbed to her wounds and passed away in hospital.

Ministers of the Visegrad 4 countries agreed at a meeting in the High Tatras that strong regions and the EU's eastern borders are key to a competitive Europe.

A strong regional dimension and the ability to respond to the specific needs of individual areas are paramount, according to the V4 countries.

It all starts on Twitter in January 2020.

An account pops up with a name borrowing the identity of the Visegrad Group or V4 and the official regional cooperation framework connecting Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia, who took the name after a royal summit held at Visegrad in 1355, an event later remembered as an early model of central European cooperation.

I remember at the time seeing the account and believing, like many others likely did, that this was an official media arm of the V4, so I gave it a follow.

Turns out it couldn't be further from the truth.

But it's more than geography.

In that sense, it's more than the Visegrad Forum.

It is a cultural dimension.

And of course, it's the historic dimension of Central Europe or Mitteleuropa.

Yeah, you have a few more.

But still, you know, when we are sort of like meditating still about this center European identity, we spoke about Czechoslovakia, we spoke about Holy Roman Empire, we can talk about Habsburg.

And here sort of we are coming to Visegrad, another important place.

historical place in Central Europe and from this we derived 25 years ago Visegrad IV.

Bala described Germany as Slovakia's strategic, political and most important economic partner, noting that both countries are members of the European Union and NATO.

A two-day meeting of Visegrad Forum ministers responsible for regional development began in the High Tatras on Monday, with EU cohesion funding and the future of Europe's regions after 2027 high on the agenda.

Slovakia is hosting the talks as part of its WeFor presidency.

European Commission Executive Vice President Rafaela Vito also joined the meeting on Monday.

The measure follows a government decision aimed at limiting pressure on fuel prices amid a tense situation on European energy markets.

The Finance Ministry says the regulation targets station margins, not retail prices themselves, and is intended to prevent excessive or artificial price increases.

The ministry says diesel prices in Slovakia were the fourth lowest in the European Union last week and the lowest among the Visegrad four.

The measure will be monitored through daily price analysis and comparisons with neighboring countries.

He pointed to Slovakia's fuel prices as evidence that the refinery is already exercising restraint.

Slovakia has the second cheapest fuel among the Visegrad four countries and is generally among the cheapest quarter of EU member states.

After this week's News Roundup, we bring you the second part of today's program.

As usual, we're going to play you some highlights from the past week's shows.