• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
Sunday, June 4, 2023
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
Diplomatic Watch
  • News
  • Diplomacy
    • Ambassador-In-Situ
    • Appointments
    • Citizen Diplomacy
    • Country Profile
    • Embassy
    • Family
    • Head of Mission
    • Honorary Consul
    • In Memoriam
    • National Day
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Features
    • Business
    • Culture
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Interviews
    • Migration
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Events
  • News
  • Diplomacy
    • Ambassador-In-Situ
    • Appointments
    • Citizen Diplomacy
    • Country Profile
    • Embassy
    • Family
    • Head of Mission
    • Honorary Consul
    • In Memoriam
    • National Day
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Features
    • Business
    • Culture
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Interviews
    • Migration
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
Diplomatic Watch
No Result
View All Result
Home Diplomacy

Visegrad 4 Group: Cooperation That Works

Victor Gotevbe by Victor Gotevbe
May 24, 2018
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Flags of the Visegrad 4 Group

By Victor Gotevbe

Come July 1, 2018, Slovakia will take over the leadership of the Visegrad Group for another one year anchored on the agreed rotational presidency. The current holder of the rotating Visegrad presidency is Hungary.

The Visegrád Group, Visegrád Four, or V4 is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that are members of the European Union (EU) – for the purposes of advancing military, cultural, economic and energy cooperation with one another along with furthering their integration in the EU.

RELATED STORIES

Exploring the power of cultural diplomacy: A journey across continents

Exploring the power of cultural diplomacy: A journey across continents

June 4, 2023
Moscow, May 26, 2023 - Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, H.E. Mr. Abshir Omar Jama, meets with his Russian counterpart, H.E. Mr. Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries. Photo: MoFA Somalia.

Minister Jama meets Russian counterpart Lavrov to boost bilateral relations

June 3, 2023
ADVERTISEMENT

Historical background

The Visegrád Group was created on February 15, 1991 when Polish, Czechoslovakian and Hungarian leaders met in the Hungarian town of Visegrád to promote cooperation between the three States following the Warsaw Pact. In 1993, Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic and the Group became the “V4”.

The initial aims were to promote these States as candidates for membership of NATO and the European Union. They were accepted in 1999 and 2004, respectively. Since then, the V4 has continued essentially as an instrument for consultation and definition of shared position between the countries concerned in advance of European deadlines.

ADVERTISEMENT

With over 65 million inhabitants, the Visegrad Group has a similar weight to that of France within the European Union, which gives it 12.46% of the votes within the Council of the European Union.  If counted as a single nation state, the Visegrád Group would be the fifth largest economy in Europe and the 12th largest in the world

All four nations in the Visegrád Group are high-income countries with a very high Human Development Index. V4 countries have enjoyed more or less steady economic growth for over a century. In 2009, Slovakia adopted the euro as its official currency and is the only member in the Group to do so.

The functioning of the Visegrad Group

ADVERTISEMENT

The V4 works on an informal intergovernmental model and takes decisions by consensus. It does not have any permanent structures. The group’s work is centred around a presidency which rotates on an annual basis and regular meetings at various levels: Heads of State, Prime Ministers, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of State for European Affairs, technical ministries, etc.

The meeting agenda is set by the presidency and is generally governed by the key moments of the European calendar (European Council meetings, informal summits, etc.). The high-level meetings are most often accompanied by the adoption of shared positions.

The V4 occasionally extends its work to other States, both EU and non-EU members, in formats known as “V4+”, depending on the topics on the agenda and/or the European and international priorities of the Presidency.

What the V4 Presidency may mean to Slovakia

Mr. Peter Pellegrini, Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic.

Slovakia is the smallest, but considerably have a powerful V4 economy with a GDP of USD $158.428 billion total, 70th in the world. Czechoslovakia was the most developed country of the Eastern Bloc when Communism ruled in Europe. The first years after the revolution in 1989 saw a stagnation. At the end of the 1990s, the economy grew and attracted a lot of investment from abroad. Slovakia is a country which produces the most cars per capita in the whole world. There is more than 1 million cars produced in Slovakia every year.

The Visegrad countries have been a hard nut to crack when it comes to sharing the burden of the refugee crisis. Even Mr. Peter Pellegrini, Prime Minister of Slovakia shares the opinion that the mandatory quotas were not fair to Slovakia and has stressed there were other ways Slovakia could contribute citing the project under which Slovakia hosts asylum-seekers while they await the decisions on their applications in Austria.

Slovakia has showcased the Gabčíkovo camp near Bratislava as an example that intergovernmental solutions can work better than the European Commission’s relocation system based on mandatory quotas.

It is believed that as Slovakia is the incoming presidency, the Visegrad Four will further help improve the relations between the V4 and the Commission.

 

Victor Gotevbe

Victor Gotevbe

Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief

ADVERTISEMENT

Popular Today

  • Kosovo tensions: France and Germany call for fresh elections. Photo: Yahoo

    France, Germany push for fresh elections in tense Kosovo

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Exploring the power of cultural diplomacy: A journey across continents

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • U.S Embassy calls for transparency in Eswatini’s judicial processes

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Jill Biden promotes women and youth empowerment in Cairo

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ghana celebrates African Union Day with flag-raising ceremony and food bazaar

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Be the first to know

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
WRITE US info@diplomaticwatch.com

© 2023 Diplomatic Watch - All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Diplomacy
    • Ambassador-In-Situ
    • Appointments
    • Citizen Diplomacy
    • Country Profile
    • Embassy
    • Family
    • Head of Mission
    • Honorary Consul
    • In Memoriam
    • National Day
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Features
    • Business
    • Culture
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Interviews
    • Migration
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Events

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In