UK exit must not halt EU progress, says Zaorálek after Prague “V4+” meeting

The planned departure of the United Kingdom will not halt the development of the EU; however, the rest of the bloc must work harder to convince the publics of its merits. That was the message from Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek after a meeting in Prague on Monday with his counterparts from the other Visegrad states, Germany and France.

Lubomír Zaorálek, photo: CTK

European leaders have been holding a flurry of talks on Monday as they grapple with the fallout of UK voters’ seismic decision to quit the European Union.

Here in Prague the minister of foreign affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek, hosted hastily arranged talks on the issue with his counterparts from the other Visegrad states – Poland, Slovakia and Hungary – and Germany and France.

The Czech foreign policy chief said he was speaking for all six ministers when they appeared before journalists at the Černín Palace.

“The decision by the British people in a referendum is a serious matter. We regret it. But at the same time it is something that cannot and will not halt the future development of the European Union. We agreed at our meeting today that the EU is a project that we badly need for our lives. And we are ready to do everything we can to ensure that project carries on successfully.”

Mr. Zaorálek said member states needed to hold a debate on what kind of European Union they want in future – and to think hard about the best route forward for the bloc.

“After what we have seen, a bad response would be rapid integration, hasty integration. And a bad response would be to pretend nothing had happened. We’re ready to continue with integration in places where we all need it urgently – and are able to explain it to the people. And we’re also ready to do all we can so that individual EU states can pursue policies capable of finding favour with the public and win public support.”

Jean-Claude Juncker, photo: CTK

Monday’s meeting precedes a much-anticipated summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Tuesday.

Prior to the Prague talks, Lubomír Zaorálek made a forthright call on the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to step down over his responsibility for the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Mr. Juncker is not the right man for the job, the Czech foreign policy chief told Czech Television.