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Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland representing the current Presidency of the Visegrad Four hosted the annual meeting of the V4 in the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw. He invited Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, too as his country takes up the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2009. The Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic represented the current EU Presidency, while Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák represented Slovakia. The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Péter Balázs.
The participants acknowledged with appreciation the work of the Polish V4 Presidency, which is now coming to and end, with particular regard to those initiatives which aided the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood Policy, as well as contributed to the creation of a strategy to slow down climate change. Mr Balázs emphasised that the Polish Presidency had done much to realise the goals of the International Visegrad Fund, and, within this, had achieved results towards expanding the scholarship system and supporting democracy.
Mr Balázs outlined details of the Hungarian V4 chairmanship programme noting that we intend to steer foreign policy of the Visegrad countries towards placing an equal importance on the Western Balkans as well as the EU Eastern Neighbourhood Policy. We regard preparations for both the next EU financial perspective for the years 2014-2021 and the creation of the European Foreign Service as equally important.
The participants supported Mr Sikorski's viewpoint on the importance of issues connected to regional energy security. In this regard, Mr Balázs emphasised the increasing need to connect together the energy networks of the countries of the region and create further pipeline systems, among them the Nabucco project as second to none.
Beyond this, the V4 Foreign Ministers agreed to examine the possibility of creating joint consulates and diplomatic missions as a consequence of the current economic crisis.
 At the V4 - Sweden talks, the participants reviewed the priorities of the upcoming Swedish EU presidency, and the Swedish side was briefed about the Hungarian V4 programme. They discussed in detail the Eastern Partnership as well as relations between Russia and the EU and various aspects of regional energy security.
On the occasion of the Warsaw meeting, Mr Balázs held a brief meeting with Mr Sikorski. He confirmed that Hungary would gladly welcome Mr Bronisław Komorowski the Speaker of the Polish Parliament, who is to visit Budapest on June 27 to take part in the 20th anniversary commemorations of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain.
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