After thedissolution 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 Groupjoined the European Union on 1 May 2004, achieving its main goal.
During theEuropean 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.[7] The Visegrad Four became politically split due to changes in governments and diverging reactions to theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Yet its role in fostering exchange among countries' public servants and civil societies (Visegrad Fund) remains crucial.[8] If the Visegrád Group were a single country, its land area, population, and economy would be similar to those ofMetropolitan France.
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 theVisegrad Fund and expert-level cooperation on topics such as infrastructure. The group became politically active and media visible during theEuropean 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.[12] The coherence of the group decreased with the lower salience of migration in the subsequent years.
Thefull-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 caused a rift within the group. The Hungarian government underViktor Orbán and the Slovak government underRobert Fico rejected support for Ukraine and echoed Russian claims that the war had been provoked byNATO. On the other hand, the Czech government underPetr Fiala and the Polish government underDonald Tusk are among the strongest supporters of Ukraine.[13] 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."[14] Polish Foreign MinisterRadosław Sikorski also stressed that the priority for Poland (the largest country in the group) should be collaboration within theWeimar Triangle (Poland, Germany, France) and with the US, rather than with the Visegrad Four.[15]
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 (down to the level of ministerial experts), which helps the four countries in EU negotiations - as well as networking among civil society actors.[8]
Economic transformation fromcommunist central-planning todemocratic 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 (semi)peripheral economies like theBaltic states (dependent on a debt-driven model) orSouthern Europe (debt-based consumption-led model).[17]
In 2009, Slovakia adopted theeuro 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 theEurozone once they have satisfied theeuro convergence criteria by theTreaty of Accession since they joined theEU.[18]
If counted as a single country, the Visegrád Group'sGDP would be the 4th in the EU, 5th in Europe and 15th in the world.[19][20] In terms of international trade, the V4 is not only at the forefront of Europe, but also of the world (4th in the EU, 5th in Europe and 8th in the world).[21]
Based on gross domestic product per capita (PPP) estimated figures for the year 2020, the most developed country in the group is the Czech Republic (US$40,858 per capita), followed by Slovakia (US$38,321 per capita), Hungary (US$35,941 per capita) and Poland (US$35,651 per capita). The average GDP (PPP) in 2019 for the entire group is estimated at US$34,865. (Source?)
Within the EU, the V4 countries are pro-nuclear-power, and are seeking to expand or found (in the case of Poland) 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.[22][23]
Hungary has the group's third largest economy (total GDP of US$350.000 billion, 53rd in the world). Hungary was one of the more developed economies of the Eastern bloc. With about $18 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) 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 (cars, buses), chemical, electrical, textile, and food industries. The services sector accounted for 64.8% of GDP in 2017 (est.).[29]
The main sectors of Hungarian industry are heavy industry (mining, metallurgy, machine and steel production), energy production, mechanical engineering, chemicals, food industry, and automobile production. The industry is leaning mainly on processing industry and (including construction) accounted for 29.32% of GDP in 2008.[30] The leading industry is machinery, followed by the chemical industry (plastic production, pharmaceuticals), 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.[31]
Agriculture accounted for 4.3% of GDP in 2008 and along with the food industry occupied roughly 7.7% of the labour force.[32][33]
Tourism employs nearly 150,000 people and the total income from tourism was 4 billion euros in 2008.[34] One of Hungary's top tourist destinations isLake 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.[35]
Poland has the region's largest economy (GDP PPP total of US$1.353 trillion,[36] ranked 22nd in the world). According to theUnited Nations and theWorld Bank, it is a high-income country[37] with a high quality of life and a very high standard of living.[38][39] The Polish economy is the fifth-largest in the EU and one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe, with a yearly growth rate of over 3.0% between 1991 and 2019.
Poland was the only European Union member to have avoided a decline in GDP during the late-2000s recession, and in 2009 created the most GDP growth of all countries in the EU. The Polish economy had not entered recession nor contracted. According to Poland's Central Statistical Office, in 2011 the Polish economic growth rate was 4.3%, the best result in the entire EU. The largest component of its economy is the service sector (67.3%), followed by industry (28.1%) and agriculture (4.6%). Since increased private investment and EU funding assistance, Poland's infrastructure has developed rapidly.
The population is 64,301,710 inhabitants, which would rank 22nd largest in the world and 4th in Europe (similar in size to France, Italy or the UK) if V4 were a single country. The most populated country in the group is Poland (38 million),[42] followed by the Czech Republic (~11 million),[43] Hungary (~10 million),[44] and Slovakia (5.5 million).[45]
The main aim of the fund is to strengthen the ties among people and institutions in Central and Eastern Europe through giving support to regional non-governmental initiatives.[citation needed]
On 12 May 2011, Polish Defence MinisterBogdan Klich said that Poland will lead a newEU Battlegroup of the Visegrád Group. The decision was made at the V4 defence ministers' meeting inLevoča, Slovakia, and the battlegroup became operational and was placed on standby in the first half of 2016. The ministers also agreed that the V4 militaries should hold regular exercises under the auspices of theNATO Response Force, with the first such exercise to be held in Poland in 2013. The battlegroup included members of V4 andUkraine.[46]Another V4 EU Battlegroup was formed in the second semester of 2019 (V4 +Croatia) and another will be on standby in the first semester of 2023.[47][48]
On 14 March 2014, in response to the2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, a pact was signed for a joint military body within the European Union.[49]Subsequent Action Plan defines these other cooperation areas:[48]
V4 Joint Logistics Support Group Headquarters (V4 JLSG HQ) was established in 2020 and will reach the full operational capability by the beginning of 2023.[48]
Created by an agreement signed in Bratislava on 26 February 2015, the Institute aims at operating as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authorities (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) as from 1 July 2016.
The countries participating in the Austerlitz format. From north to south: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria.
Austria is the Visegrád Group's southwestern neighbor. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria launched theSlavkov format for the three countries in early 2015. The first meeting in this format took place on 29 January 2015 inSlavkov u Brna (Austerlitz) in the Czech Republic. Petr Drulák, the deputy foreign minister of the Czech Republic, emphasized that the Austerlitz format was not a competitor, but an addition to the Visegrád group, after proposals to enlarge the V4 with Austria andSlovenia were rejected byHungary.[50][51]
Germany, the Visegrád Group's western neighbour, is a key economic partner of the group and vice versa. As of 2018, Germany's trade and investment flows with the V4 are greater than with China.[54]
Romania has been invited to participate in the Visegrád Group on previous occasions. However, several incidents, such as theBlack March ethnic clashes, made this impossible.[citation needed]
Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia borderUkraine on their east. Poland additionally bordersBelarus andRussia'sKaliningrad Oblast to the northeast. The Czech Republic is fully surrounded by other EU members. Hungary borders Serbia, acandidate for EU accession, in the south.
Ukraine, an eastern neighbour of the V4 that is not a member of the EU, is one of largest recipients of the International Visegrád Fund support and receives assistance from the Visegrád Group for its aspirations toEuropean integration.[57] Ukraine joined theDeep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU and therefore with the V4 in 2016.[58]
The2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to tensions within the Visegrád Group with Hungary under Viktor Orban, opposed to harsher sanctions against Russia, while the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland strongly supporting Ukraine.[59][60] In November 2022, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated, “This is not the best of times for the (Visegrád) format, and Hungary's different attitudes are significantly influencing and complicating the situation.”[59]
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