The forthcoming second summit of the European Union and Brazil, scheduled for December 2008, needs to discuss the issue of Brazil recognising Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as market economies, foreign ministers of the respective states concluded at a meeting of the Visegrad Group in Warsaw on November 24, the press service of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In addition to the foreign ministers from the four countries that make up the group - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - it was attended by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin and his colleagues from the Baltic states, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.

The ministers also decided to take joint action in meeting commitments made under memoranda signed with the US to join its visa waiver programme. On the European Commission's climate change and green energy legislative proposal, the ministers agreed to draft a common position to record their efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as well as the high cost of the future measures to be taken under the package.

On the EU's common agricultural policy reform, commitment was re-affirmed for future joint action aimed at helping the bloc's new member states catch up with the old ones faster, given how common efforts have led to receiving additional funds to aid their farmers.

On Belarus, the foreign ministers said the situation did not meet their expectations and said that president Alyaksandr Lukashenka ought to be put under more pressure to guarantee democratic rights and freedoms in Belarus.

On Georgia, the ministers noted Moscow still had not completely fulfilled its commitments under the six-point agreement it signed with Tbilisi in August 2008.