V4: A new brand for Europe? Ten years of post-accession regional cooperation in Central Europe

Abstract

The original purpose of the Visegrad Group (VG) was primarily to support its member states' (Czech Republic, Hungary Poland and Slovakia) accession to the EU and NATO. Despite some serious doubts about whether it would have a viable future beyond 2004, actual EU membership has given the VG an ever-expanding agenda for cooperation and coordination in many aspects of EU affairs, internal and external. The VG is now firmly embedded in the European political landscape and operates as a distinct regional grouping within the EU. Indeed, the February 2011 VG summit that marked the VG's 20th anniversary was attended by Angela Merkel. Moreover, the leaders of the VG states recently met with Merkel and Francois Hollande at two VG-Weimar summits in November 2012 and March 2013. This paper will reflect on ten years of VG cooperation inside the EU. It will focus on several issues: how actual EU membership revitalised the cooperation agenda of the VG; the 'modus operandi' of the VG and why it should be regarded as a specific vehicle for cooperation and coordination around EU affairs with well-defined limitations and not as some kind of Central European 'lobby' or regional 'bloc' within the EU; examples and areas of VG coordination on EU affairs, with special emphasis on the VG's role in EU foreign policy - in particular with regard to relations with the eastern neighbours. Some parameters of VG cooperation will also be discussed, taking the VG's inability to engage in any cooperation around EU-Russia relations as a key example. (original abstract)