Visegrad Group As the Basis for the Integration of Eastern Europe into Western Structures

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-43
Author(s):  
D.S. Belokhvostkina ◽  
◽  
M.Yu. Martynova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
International Development ◽  
Important Stage ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Is Integration ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
The Eu

the most important stage of modern international development is integration processes. One of the conflicting regions of the worlds is Eastern Europe. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary united in the Visegrad group, the purpose of which was the transition to Western values and structures. The main aim of this article is to analyze the integration of Eastern Europe on the example of the Visegrad group. The article discusses the prerequisites for the unification of the Visegrad group, the role of these countries in the EU and NATO and the assistance of the participating States within the organization. The author comes to the conclusion that the Visegrad group is a controversial organization, but the main tasks of its creation were completed.

scholarly journals Quo vadis, V4? What is the potential of the Czech Republic to promote its interests within the framework of the V4?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (56) ◽  
pp. 255-279
Author(s):  
Zbyněk Dubský ◽  
Kateřina Kočí
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Central European ◽  
Future Role ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
Positive Input ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
Regional Grouping ◽  
The Eu

The original purpose of the Visegrad Group (VG or V4 – which includes Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) was primarily to support its member states’ accession to the EU and NATO, which it successfully achieved. However, the views on the current cooperation of four Central European countries differ. Some researchers believe that the V4 has transformed since 2004 into a viable project which has become even an inspirational model of cooperation for other regional groupings. According to them, and contrary to doubts about the continuation of the V4 project, membership of the EU has given the V4 a new impulse, and its agenda has been expanded into new areas of cooperation which included EU affairs. Therefore, the V4 operates now as a distinct regional grouping within the EU (i.e. positive input regarding their commitment in several Council presidencies). Others, however, suggest that V4 cooperation seems to be labelled as a defensive project, a coalition within the EU, which is against something (recently the prominent topics have revolved around migration issues) and that it could lead to the marginalisation of the group and thus reduce its importance at the EU level. While discussing the future role of the V4, the article will focus on the Czech Republic, and its potential to promote its interests within the framework of the V4, especially in the context of its current presidency (from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020).

scholarly journals State-building for the market economy in Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-491
Author(s):  
Paul Hare
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
New States ◽  
The Eu

AbstractKornai's earlier works embodied the idea that state institutions formed a system with a strong tendency to reproduce itself, and hence to resist minor reforms. Thus, at the end of socialism, huge changes were needed in politics, economics, and the law to build a new system oriented towards the market-type economy, which would again be stable, self-reinforcing and self-sustaining. Transition promoted the development of new states in Eastern Europe that conformed to the Copenhagen criteria for the EU accession. Were we too hasty in thinking that we had succeeded? The new systems are not returning to the previous one, and only in a few areas have the basic norms of a market-type economy been set aside in Hungary or Poland. But concerns arise at the interface between politics, law and economics – to do with the rule of law, the nature and role of the state, and the interactions between parliament, the executive and the judiciary. Unavoidably, there is also an interesting international dimension here, represented by the shift from the Warsaw Pact and CMEA to NATO and the EU. This paper explores these issues in the light of some of Kornai's recent analysis of developments in Hungary, while also drawing on his very insightful earlier works.

scholarly journals ‘The skies are empty and the continent is overflowing with insoluble problems’ – The Covid-19 crisis in the western Balkans and the failure of the EU

SEER ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Jens Becker ◽  
Ina Kulić
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Eu

Many societies are still in the stranglehold of the coronavirus. China, South Korea and Taiwan have apparently overcome the pandemic but problems that are almost impossible to resolve are piling up in Europe. Despite the joint vaccination procurement campaign, the EU in particular is struggling to regulate the crisis domestically. The states of the western Balkans which have been relying on an EU perspective for years and which have repeatedly been put off, have also been hit hard, piling problems on top of health services that are, for a number of reasons, already seriously jeopardised. In view of the worsening situation - countries in central and south-eastern Europe are over-represented among those with the highest numbers of Covid-19 related deaths - we take a closer look at current practicalities and political realities in these ‘high incidence areas’, as the region is currently known (according to the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft). This article focuses on the role of the EU, and how views of this are changing in the region, as well as that being played by other, apparently more nimble and agile, powers.

Central and Eastern Europe: The New Core or the Periphery of Europe?

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-181
Author(s):  
Ireneusz Paweł Karolewski
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Policy Fields ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
The Eu

This chapter focuses on Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the EU, and how they positioned themselves in the new constellation of conflicts within the EU in the aftermath of the multiple crisis. It deals mainly with the Visegrad Group (V4) and explores its ‘repositioning’ in regard to two crisis-ridden policy fields of the EU: controversies about the rule of law and the refugee crisis. With regard to the former issue, the chapter discusses Poland as the most prominent case among the CEE countries. Against this background, it highlights two specific aspects of domestic politics: the memory games that the V4 countries play with their past and the Euroscepticism of government circles as well as a broader public.

The Role of Third Countries in EU Migration Policy: The Mobility Partnerships

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasja Reslow
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Cape Verdean ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Third ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
External Migration ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Third countries are actors in EU external migration policy, not merely passive recipients of policy proposals. In order to understand policy outcomes, it is necessary to understand why third countries decide to participate (or not) in EU migration policy initiatives. The conditionality model provides an explanation which focuses on the domestic preferences of and processes in the third countries. In 2007, the EU introduced the Mobility Partnerships. These partnerships are intended to be the framework for migration relations between the EU and third countries in Eastern Europe and Africa. The Cape Verdean government decided to sign a Mobility Partnership because the benefits of this cooperation with the EU outweighed the costs. The Senegalese government refused to sign because the Mobility Partnership would have implied significant, unacceptable costs.

Selected elements of fiscal policy in the Visegrad Group Countries

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Tomasz Grabia
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Public Finances ◽  
Visegrad Group

The article discusses key problems of fiscal policy in four selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) in years 2001—2014. The analysis covers, among others, indicators of public debt and its determinants, as well as indicators of budget revenues and expenditures. The article points out that public debt increased in all the studied countries in the analysed period. Both structural and cyclical deficits were responsible for its build-up. The country with the best state of public finances was the Czech Republic. Although the situation improved from 2011 Hungary had the highest level of debt in relation to GDP. That country was also characterized by a degree of fiscalism, measured by both budget revenues and expenditures in relations to GDP, much higher than those for other countries.

scholarly journals Rola dużych gospodarstw rolnych we wzroście produktywności pracy rolnictwa polskiego na tle sytuacji w innych wybranych krajach Unii Europejskiej

2018 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Józwiak ◽  
Zofia Mirkowska ◽  
Wojciech Ziętara
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Large Farms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Group 1

The study focuses on the analysis of labor productivity in Polish agriculture in 2005 and 2016 in comparison to selected EU-15 countries (group 1) and some countries that joined the EU after 2004. In group 1, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany are included, while in group 2 - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Hungary. The analysis particularly considers the role of large farms, the size of which was contractually agreed at 30 ha of UAA. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of large farms on the level of labor productivity in total farms and to determine the possibility of reducing the differences between labor productivity in Polish large farms in relation to analogous farms in EU-15 countries, and determining whether changes occurring in Poland differ from those occurring in large farms in other post-socialist countries. In both groups of countries there was a decrease in the number of farms and an increase in labor productivity in agriculture in general and in surveyed classes in large farms. In the countries of group 2. the rate of labor productivity growth was higher than in group 1. However, it slightly reduced the differences. Labor productivity in agriculture in the countries of Group 1 was significantly higher than in Group 2. The increase in the number and share of large farms in the structure of farms was positively correlated with labor productivity in agriculture.

scholarly journals Integration of Monetary and Fiscal Policy of the Countries of the Visegrad Group

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-213
Author(s):  
Stanislav Kappel ◽  
Jan Janků
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Monetary And Fiscal Policy ◽  
Visegrad Group

Abstract The aim of this paper is to evaluate mutual interaction of monetary and fiscal policies in the countries of the Visegrad group, i.e. in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. The relationship of monetary and fiscal policy - their coordination, cooperation or mutual antagonism - are basic determinants of successful implementation for economic policy of the state. Fiscal and monetary policies usually have different aims, and some conflict situations may arise in practical economic and political decision- making. Each policy has to make its decision with regard to the other one. Methodical approaches of this contribution are based on the game theory, which deals with the analysis of a wide range of decision situations with more participants (players) and it is primarily focused on the conflict situations. This game-theoretical approach is responsible for creating the theoretical model which is then dealt with in the empirical analysis. We find a distinctly stabilizing role of monetary policy and relatively problematic stabilizing role of fiscal policy in the analyzed countries. The dominant role of monetary policy is statistically confirmed in the case of the Czech Republic and Hungary.

scholarly journals The Visegrad Four in Times of Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Anna Chetverikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Future Development ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The World ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
The Eu

The article contains an analysis of the Visegrad Group’s approaches to the world financial and economic crisis of 2008 and the pandemic in 2020. The reasons which determined the increase of the Four’s importance in the EU during periods of global distress for a number of economic indicators are outlined. Special attention is paid to the economic dynamics of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 2020 in comparison to the time of crisis of 2008-2009 and to the factors influencing the response of countries to the complementary economic issues. The transformation of trade and investment relations within the Visergad Group during the crisis periods is considered. The reasons for changes inside the group are identified. The conclusion is drawn that external challenges cause the weakening of relations within the Four in several areas; the Visegrad market can not fully play the compensatory role for its members in emergency conditions. However, the opportunity for expanding relations within the Group in the future is not excluded. The results of the experts’ survey on the attitudes of the Four during periods of external challenges, relations within the Visegrad Group and directions for future development are presented.

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