Visegrád Group
The Visegrád Group is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-operation in military, economic, cultural and energy affairs. All four nations are also members of the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Three Seas Initiative.
The alliance traces its origins to the summit meetings of leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, held in the Hungarian castle town of Visegrád on 15 February 1991. Visegrád was chosen as the location for the summits as an intentional allusion to the medieval Congress of Visegrád between John I of Bohemia, Charles I of Hungary, and Casimir III of Poland in 1335.
After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent members of the alliance, increasing the number of members from three to four. All four members of the Visegrád Group joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, achieving its main goal.
During the European immigration crisis in 2015, the Visegrad Group successfully blocked EU-level actions aimed at implementing the forced relocation of illegal immigrants within the member states. At that time EU Commission started infringement procedures against actions of the Hungarian and Polish national-conservative governments, claiming that they undermine democracy, media freedom, and the independence of the judiciary. The Visegrad Four became politically split due to changes in governments and diverging reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Yet its role in fostering exchange among countries' public servants and civil societies remains crucial. If the Visegrád Group were a single country, its land area and population would be similar to those of Metropolitan France.
History
Background (1335–1989)
The name of the Visegrád Group references the place of meeting selected for the 1335 Congress of Visegrád held by the Bohemian, Polish, and Hungarian rulers in Visegrád. Charles I of Hungary, Casimir III of Poland, and John I of Bohemia agreed to create new commercial routes to bypass the city of Vienna and to obtain easier access to other European markets. The recognition of Czech sovereignty over the Duchy of Silesia was also confirmed. The second Congress of Visegrád took place in 1339 and decided that if Casimir III of Poland died without a son, then the son of Charles I of Hungary, Louis I of Hungary would become the King of Poland.From the 16th century, large parts of the present-day territories of the group's members became part of, or were influenced, by the Vienna-based Habsburg monarchy. This situation continued until the end of World War I and the dissolution of Habsburg-ruled Austria-Hungary in 1918. In the three years after the end of World War II in 1945 the countries became satellite states of the Soviet Union, as the Polish People's Republic, the Hungarian People's Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe enabled Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to adopt capitalism and democracy. In December 1991, the fall of the Soviet Union occurred, further allowing the three countries to look westward.
Establishment (1990s)
The Visegrád Group was established on 15 February 1991 at a meeting between the President of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, Václav Havel, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, József Antall, in the Hungarian town of Visegrád. The group was created with the aim of moving away from communism and implementing the reforms required for full membership of the Euro-Atlantic institutions, such as NATO and the EU.After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent members of the alliance, raising the number of members from three to four. All four members of the Visegrád Group joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.
Contemporary history (2004–present)
With all four Visegrad countries joining the EU in 2004, the primary goal of the group was achieved. Since then, the Visegrad Group has focused mostly on cultural cooperation through the Visegrad Fund and expert-level cooperation on topics such as infrastructure. The group became politically active and media visible during the European Migration Crisis in 2015. The Visegrad countries forcefully fought against the EU quota that aimed to distribute Syrian refugees from the overwhelmed southern EU countries across the continent. The coherence of the group decreased with the lower salience of migration in the subsequent years.The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 caused a rift within the group. The Hungarian government under Viktor Orbán and the Slovak government under Robert Fico rejected support for Ukraine and echoed Russian claims that the war had been provoked by NATO. On the other hand, the Czech government under Petr Fiala and the Polish government under Donald Tusk are among the strongest supporters of Ukraine. This rift was highlighted by the summit in Prague in 2024, where Fiala said it "wouldn't make sense that we differ in the views of the cause of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the ways of solving it." Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also stressed that the priority for Poland should be collaboration within the Weimar Triangle and with the US, rather than with the Visegrad Four.
While some Czech politicians even called for leaving the Visegrad Four, Vít Dostál, head of the foreign policy think-tank AMO, argued that the V4 survived many governments with differing foreign policy priorities. He highlighted V4's crucial role in networking among public servants, which helps the four countries in EU negotiations - as well as networking among civil society actors.
Economies
All four nations in the Visegrád Group are high-income countries with a very high Human Development Index. V4 countries have experienced more or less steady economic growth for over a century.History and categorization
Economic transformation from communist central-planning to democratic market-economy was one of the goals of the Visegrad cooperation and was seen as an integral part of the so-called “Return to Europe”. The Visegrad countries succeeded to various levels and managed to overcome the economic slump after the 1989 revolution during the 1990s. With integration into the European Union, they chose an export-led FDI-dependent growth model. Not only due to their geographical proximity to Germany, but also due to their elite's decision to protect their industrial heritage, they became manufacturing hubs for Western European companies, foremost for the German automotive sector. This strategy differentiates Visegrad countries from other peripheral economies like the Baltic states or Southern Europe.In 2009, Slovakia adopted the euro as its official currency, being the only member of the group to have done so. All four countries are eventually obliged to adopt the euro in the future and to join the Eurozone once they have satisfied the euro convergence criteria by the Treaty of Accession since they joined the EU.
GDP (per capita)
If counted as a single country, the Visegrád Group's GDP would be the 4th in the EU, 5th in Europe and 15th in the world. In terms of international trade, the V4 is not only at the forefront of Europe, but also of the world.Based on gross domestic product per capita estimated figures for 2020, the most developed country in the group is the Czech Republic, followed by Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. The average GDP in 2019 for the entire group is estimated at US$34,865.
Nuclear energy
Within the EU, the V4 countries are pro-nuclear-power, and are seeking to expand or found a nuclear-power industry. They have sought to counter what they see as an anti-nuclear-power bias within the EU, believing their countries would benefit from nuclear power.Czech Republic
The economy of the Czech Republic is the group's second largest.Within the V4, the Czech Republic has the highest Human Development Index, Human Capital Index, nominal GDP per capita as well as GDP at purchasing power parity per capita.
Hungary
Hungary has the group's third largest economy. Hungary was one of the more developed economies of the Eastern bloc. With about $18 billion in foreign direct investment since 1989, Hungary has attracted over one-third of all FDI in central and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union. Of this, about $6 billion came from American companies. Now it is an industrial agricultural state. The main industries are engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical, electrical, textile, and food industries. The services sector accounted for 64.8% of GDP in 2017.The main sectors of Hungarian industry are heavy industry, energy production, mechanical engineering, chemicals, food industry, and automobile production. The industry is leaning mainly on processing industry and accounted for 29.32% of GDP in 2008. The leading industry is machinery, followed by the chemical industry, while mining, metallurgy and textile industry seemed to be losing importance in the past two decades. In spite of the significant drop in the last decade, the food industry still contributes up to 14% of total industrial production and amounts to 7–8% of the country's exports.
Agriculture accounted for 4.3% of GDP in 2008 and along with the food industry occupied roughly 7.7% of the labour force.
Tourism employs nearly 150,000 people and the total income from tourism was 4 billion euros in 2008. One of Hungary's top tourist destinations is Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, with 1.2 million visitors in 2008. The most visited region is Budapest; the Hungarian capital attracted 3.61 million visitors in 2008. Hungary was the world's 24th most visited country in 2011.