What Europe do the Visegrad countries want to construct?

On September 14th, 2017, INCIPE hosted a Working Breakfast titled What Europe do the Visegrad countries want to construct? Program of the Hungarian V4 Presidency. For this meeting, the participation of Eniko Gyori, HE Ambassador of Hungary in Spain, was much anticipated.

The Visegrad Group was founded in February of 1991 in a meeting between the President of Czechoslovakia, the President of Poland, and the Prime Minister of Hungary, which took place in the Hungarian city of Visegrád, from which the group derived its name. This high-level conference has a profound historical link to another one celebrated in the same place in 1335 between John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, Carlos I of Anjou, King of Hungary, and Casimir III, King of Poland. The purpose of both meetings was the desire to intensify mutual cooperation and friendship between these Central European states.

From July 2017 to June 2017, Hungary will hold the rotating Presidency of the Visegrad Group. For the last 26 years (and since 2004 in the European Union), the Visegrad Group has represented regional interests contributing to the prosperity and stability of the continent through its economic performance, cooperation, and support from neighbors in the West Balkans, a focal point in the face of an unprecedented migrant crisis. The V4 countries provide stability and growth to the European Union, and they have the intention of contributing in a substantial way to the dialogue about the future of the E.U.

Hungary’s Presidency maintains the objectives and achievements of the preceding V4 Presidencies, whose slogan Connects reflects the positive impact of cooperation in the Visegrad setting with respect to the connection of the four countries under political, economic, and cultural terms. At the same time, the focus of the Presidency emphasizes other matters related to connectivity: energy, transportation network in the region, and the digital era. The Visegrad Group connects countries, governments, people, ideas, and values in an inclusive and open manner, and it is determined to take advantage of the power of connectivity in order to find common solutions to the challenges that affect the V4 as well as the rest of the European and international community.

Aranzazu Álvarez
INCIPE