Visegrad Group leaders meet to discuss financial crisis, energy

Visegrad Group leaders meet to discuss financial crisis, energy Warsaw  - Presidents of four Eastern Europe countries launched a two-day meeting Friday in Sopot, northern Poland, with the financial crisis, energy cooperation and enlargement of the EU and NATO top of the agenda.

Presidents of the so-called Visegrad Group (V4), which comprises Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were also to visit Westerplatte, the spot where World War II began in 1939 with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

The leaders were later to lay wreaths at a monument to the Solidarity labor union.

Led by Lech Walesa, the union helped topple communism in 1989 after years of strikes at shipyards on the Baltic coast.

The name Visegrad comes from the first summit meeting of the four nations, held in Hungary in 1991. (dpa)