30 YEARS OF THE VISEGRAD GROUP: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN LUBLIN (POLAND)

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland – one of the largest state higher education institutions in Poland, organized a scientific conference on April 15, 2021 dedicated to international relations “30 years of the Visegrad Group – successes, failures and prospects.” In 2021, the 30th anniversary of the Visegrad Group is celebrated. Its purpose is to summarize the results of V4’s previous cooperation, as well as to consider its future prospects and public policy directions. Scientists from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, India, the Netherlands, Georgia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine spoke in English.

The Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education was represented in Lublin by Dr. Yeva Kish, with a report entitled “Ukraine’s Foreign Policy with the Visegrad Countries at the Regional Level”. In her report, she critically noted that the principles of subsidiarity and decentralization, responsibility and capacity of the regions of Ukraine have not gained the weight shown by at least our neighbors of the “first order” – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia. As well as the fact of misunderstanding the importance, the key role of Euroregional cooperation in the context of Ukraine’s progress in the direction of European integration. In the end, the organizers plan to publish a monograph in English at UMCS.

On February 15, 1991, Hungarian Prime Minister Jozef Antal met with Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel and Polish President Lech Walesa. Jozef Antal invited dignitaries to meet the Hungarian city of Visegrád. Since then, for 30 years, the small town of Visegrad has become a symbol of one of the most successful European projects – the cooperation of the Visegrad Group. The leaders of the three countries in Visegrad agreed on closer cooperation, especially in the area of ​​integration of countries into European and Euro-Atlantic structures.

After the partition of Czechoslovakia in December 1992, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia began to use a common sign, the symbol V4, to denote the union of the four countries. From the very beginning, the Visegrad Four has defined its main goals – the accession of countries to the European Union and NATO. They achieved their goal, became members of NATO and the European Union. The Visegrad Four countries also work closely together in the fields of culture, education, science and information exchange.

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