Recharging Europe

Visegrad Cooperation (also V4 or Visegrad Group) is a regional alliance of four Central European countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. After its main strategic goals, namely the four countries’ EU and NATO accession were completed by 2004, the V4 has become a long-standing framework for the promotion of the region’s joint interests in Europe and beyond.

The Visegrad Group is named after the Hungarian town Visegrád where summit meetings of the Hungarian, Polish and Bohemian kings took place in 1335, with the aim of settling disputes and launching economic and political cooperation. Referring to this historical precedent, after hard struggles of the 20th century and decades under Soviet influence, the Visegrad countries decided in 1991 to find new forms of political, economic and cultural cooperation.

The main task of the Visegrad Group and thus of the sixth Hungarian V4 Presidency from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 is to reinforce cooperation so as to contribute to common European solutions and our region’s and Europe’s resilience, security and stability, as well as to post-pandemic economic and social reopening and recovery.