Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Information

The event took place on Wednesday, 30th April 2014 and summed up the findings of a two and a half year project carried out with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. The conference also expanded the horizon so that we could see all the relevant themes being considered through the prism of the 10 year anniversary of the EU membership of the V4 countries.

The conference is sponsored by the International Visegrad Fund.

Programme:

9:00 – 9:30    Registration

9:30 – 10:00    Welcome and opening remarks

• Petr Drulák, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

• Petr Kratochvíl, Director, Institute of International Relations, Prague

10:00 – 11:30    Panel I The V4 and the EU – Ten Years of Mutual Experience
How has the V4 countries' EU membership changed the EU? How has the V4 contributed to the EU? What values and lessons have been learned from both “sides”? What is the added value of the V4 to the EU? Is there any? What challenges has the V4 had to overcome in the EU and how did it contribute to its nature?

Chair: Michal Kořan, Deputy Director, the Institute of International Relations, Prague

• Slovakia – Milan Nič, Executive Director, the Central European Policy Institute (CEPI), Bratislava

• Hungary – Dániel Bartha, Head of the Central Europe Programme, the Central European Policy Institute (CEPI), Budapest

• Poland – Roderick Parkes, the Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw

Discussion

11:30 – 11:45    Coffee break

11:45 – 13:15    Panel II The V4 and the Future of the EU
What kind of EU does the V4 envisage and wish for in the future? What are the similarities and differences among the V4 countries in this respect? What kind of instruments and tools does the V4 have at its disposal to co-shape the future of the EU? What kind of governance, institutional setting and nature of the EU might best suit the V4?

Chair: Tomáš Strážay, the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Bratislava

• Czech Republic – Martin Ehl, Chief International Editor at Hospodářské noviny (Economic daily)

• Slovakia – Juraj Marušiak, the Institute of Political Science of the Slovak Academy of Science, Bratislava

• Hungary – Zoltán Gálik, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, Budapest

• Poland – Agata Gostyńska, the Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw

13:15 – 14:30    Buffet lunch

14:30 – 16:00    Panel III The V4 and the Future of the EU’s External Environment
How can the V4 contribute to the stabilization and positive development in the EU's immediate neighborhood? What changes should the V4 adopt in this regard with respect to the latest development in Ukraine?

Chair: Agata Gostyńska, the Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw

• Czech Republic – Lucia Najšlová, Editor in Chief of V4 Revue; the Charles University in Prague

• Slovakia – Tomáš Strážay, the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Bratislava

• Poland – Anita Sobják, the Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw

16:00 – 16:15    Coffee break

16:15 – 18:00    Panel IV Ten Years of the Czech Contribution to the Common Foreign and Security Policy

Chair: Petr Kratochvíl, Director, the Institute of International Relations, Prague

Opening: Jan Michal, the Head of the European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic   

• Vít Beneš, the IIR, Prague: Institutional Adaptation and Preferences: the Czech Republic and the Institutional Structure of the CFSP
• Mats Braun, the IIR, Prague: The Europeanization of the Czech Foreign Policy Perceptions
• Tomáš Dopita, the IIR, Prague: The Europeanization of the Czech Republic´s Foreign Policy towards the Western Balkans: Identity of Interests, but No Transformation of Identity?

18:00    Conference closing and reception

• Conference report

You can download the programme here.

Photos