The Visegrád Four. Ghosts or demons?

Abstract

Based on the monograph by Ivo van de Wijdeven, Visegrád’s ghosts: Unknown
history of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia [j. nid.
De spoken van Visegrád, De onbekende geschiedenis van Polen, Hongarije,
Tsjechië en Slowakije], published in the Netherlands in April 2018 and the
materials from the international conference “Place and role of the Visegrád
Group states in the European Union” at Lazarski University, the author
attempts to look at the issues from the point of view of a foreign reader
and the Visegrád Group states’ diplomats, the conference participants. The
diplomats demonstrated official optimism and determination, and they urged
that a forum like the Visegrád Group is necessary, and they decidedly refuted
a hypothesis that it is a competitive structure with the European Union. The
scientists, more critical in nature, drew attention to the differences between
the V4 states in order to illustrate the threats resulting from interest clashes,
e.g. particular states’ attitudes to Russia. Everybody agreed that the V4 states
face a great test, i.e. joint protection of the shape of the coherence policy and
the best possible distribution of resources in the future budget.
The author of the first monograph devoted to the V4 states written in
Dutch, in its conclusions, presents the opinion that the future of Europe,
both the European Union and the Visegrád Four, depends on the answer to
the question whether the Member States are able to translate their different
interests into their common strength instead of common weakness.