European Commission satisfied with Slovak presidency

The European Commission (EC) is satisfied with the Slovak presidency, Dusan Chrenek, head of EC representation in Slovakia confirmed on Monday.

"It's a huge gain also for Slovakia, which has made itself really visible in Europe as well as around the world. It's proven that it has capable people and is able to lead the EU," said Chrenek, but added, "perhaps we were expecting much greater success regarding migration."

The EC praised the successes under the Slovak presidency, including the Bratislava summit, the ratification of the Paris agreement, the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, the launch of the European Border and Coast Guard, the swift adoption of the EU's 2017 budget, and many other areas.

Although the EU common security and defense policy had seen no progress under the Slovak presidency, according to Ivan Korcok, an official for the Slovak presidency of the Council of the EU, this isn't the business of any presidency, but of political leaders.

"It's naive to think that some fundamental shift could be achieved from the bottom during a presidency; this is an agenda of political leaders. I sense a lack of leadership from key countries such as France and Germany, because without any momentum, there'll never be any changes," stated Korcok.

He added that the right moment for states to come closer together was directly after the Brexit vote. Despite the fact that many criticized the area of migration, Korcok considered it to be successful, as Slovakia has succeeded in changing the minds of individual states.

source: Xinhua