Prime Ministers of the four Eastern European countries which form the Visegrad Group have called on the European Union (EU) to pass its new budget plan as soon as possible and ensure financial aid for new members.

The Polish News Agency (PAP) reported Wednesday that Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Ferenc Gyurcsany, Mikulas Dzurinda and Jiri Paroubek, the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, made the call in a letter addressed to their British counterpart Tony Blair whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU until the end of the year.

The prime ministers said the 2007-2013 budget plan is not only a necessity for the stabilization of the EU's common policy, but also a basis for new members' preparation and implementation of their development programs.

They hope that the new budget would strengthen economic growth and employment, boost competitiveness and support structural reforms in EU member countries, said the letter.

The enhancement of competitiveness is one of the biggest challenges faced by the 25-nation bloc at the beginning of the 21st century, and the EU should respond to it by providing funds for new members and helping them build infrastructure and enhance their creativity, said the letter.

It added that without an agreement on the budget plan in December, the response to the challenges and the ambitions of new EU members to catch up would be delayed, and confidence in the capability of the enlarged EU to seek consensus might be seriously undermined.

Blair is to have a meeting with leaders of the Visegrad Group in Budapest, Hungary on Friday.

The meeting is expected to center on his proposed cutbacks to the 2007-2013 EU budget plan of € 871 billion (US$1.02 trillion) proposed in June by Luxembourg.

The EU's 10 new members are worried that the cuts will be made to the cohesion funds meant to aid economic development in the bloc's poorer nations.

Hungary, then Czechoslovakia and Poland set up the Visegrad Group on Feb. 15, 1991 in a bid to enhance regional cooperation. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with both gaining the membership of the group.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)