V4 premiers' statement signed on 20th anniversary

The prime ministers of the Visegrád Four (V4) group of countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have signed a statement highlighted the group's role in advancing European integration in its member countries.

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova welcomed her counterparts, Petr Necas of the Czech Republic, Vikor Orbán of Hungary and Donald Tusk of Poland in the Slovak capital, Bratislava to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the V4 group that made a landmark in the modern history of Central Europe.

In the statement, the V4 called for the European Union to deal with the problem of fast rising commodity and energy prices in a timely and efficient manner as individual member states are incapable of handling the matter.

"We are convinced that an efficient and sustainable solution to the serious problem of food and energy security as well as managing the consequences of the global rise in food and energy prices is only possible at the EU level," the leaders said in the statement.

Hungarian PM Orbán said after the signing that "the European Union's enlargement policy should be maintained even in these gloomy times".

The Visegrád Group was established in 1991 by the heads of state and government of Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia to act as a loosely organised, institutionalised forum of cooperation aimed at holding together the Central European countries that used to belong to the East Bloc, and promoting coordination for EU accession.