A New Agenda for the Visegrad Four after the EU and NATO Enlargement
A New Agenda for the Visegrad Four after the EU and NATO Enlargement

Author(s): Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski
Subject(s): Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Military policy, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: Visegrad Four; EU; NATO; enlargement; new agenda;
Summary/Abstract: The original goals the Visegrad group were formed in 1991 - the co-operation for the entrance of the Four into NATO and the European Union - has been achieved. What are the new main areas of the future co-ordination of the policies of the countries in question? The first and fundamental circumstance we are forced to act on is the fact that the international situation is still dynamic. The most dramatic period of the changes that began in 1989 is probably already over115 (we should not expect the birth of new states in the region). Still, the evolution of the internal systems of the neighbouring CIS states and the final westward or eastward orientation of the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova has not been decided. The same may be said about the future of transatlantic relations (US-EU) and the perspectives of the future NATO and the EU enlargements and neighbourhood policies. The main purpose of this text therefore, is to examine the core issues that should be addressed by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the realm of the foreign and security policy in the years to come in the context of the fact that all four countries are already NATO and the EU member states, which gives them some new tools of influence in the international game. The main questions to be answered are as follows: 1. What are the fundamental common interests of the Visegrad countries? 2. What are the expected events in the foreseeable future that the Four should define their positions on? 3. What are the instruments at the disposal of the Visegrad countries and what can they do to raise the efficacy of their influence in international relations?

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