Visegrad Four EU Battlegroup Meaning and Progress Cover Image

Visegrad Four EU Battlegroup Meaning and Progress
Visegrad Four EU Battlegroup Meaning and Progress

Author(s): Michal Paulech, Jana Urbanovská
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Univerzita obrany
Keywords: European Union; crisis management; battlegroups; Visegrad group; defence cooperation.

Summary/Abstract: In 2011, the states of the so-called Visegrad Four (V4), i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, decided to form a joint European Union battlegroup by 2016, available for rapid deployment within ten days and within a radius of six thousand kilometres from Brussels. The intention to establish this military formation had become the first initiative of its kind within the V4 ever. The present article therefore aims to examine the content of the mutual military cooperation among the CR, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia in the form of the V4 battlegroup and make readers acquainted with relevant and up-to-date information about the process of the formation of the V4 battlegroup and its importance for the military cooperation of the V4 countries. In order to achieve that, the authors introduce the previous experience of the individual V4 countries with the formation of EU battlegroups, explain the motives of the V4 countries to form a joint battlegroup, describe the path leading to the creation of the V4 BG as well as the possibilities of its deployment and the question of financing, and finally they deal with the perspectives of the V4 BG from the point of view of its importance for further development of military cooperation between the V4 countries.

  • Issue Year: 14/2014
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 49-60
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English