Visegrad Group to lobby EU for more support at the local government level

Relations between the countries from the previous Visegrad Group used to come down to diplomatic relations between their national governments, but now they plan to tighten cooperation between the particular regions of the countries and campaign together to improve their position in the EU. They want to draw attention to their local problems, and time is of the essence as right now the EU is drafting its regional integration policy for 2007-2013. In Kraków, the Visegrad Group agreed to jointly monitor the situation in the region as well as to help organize an annual Visegrad culture festival. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) J.J.