Hungary and Its Neighbors: The Visegrad Four. Fulbright-Hayes Summer Seminars Abroad Program, 2002 (Hungary and Poland)

In the early 1990s, having been freed from Soviet domination, small east central European countries, such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania, strove to establish democracy and a free market economy, and made a determined effort to join western democracies, by gaining admission to the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To join these organizations, potential members had to give evidence of their ability to cooperate. To overcome past animosities, and to advance their cause for European integration, leaders of the post-Communist regimes of Czechoslovakia (after 1993, the Czech and Slovak republics), Hungary, and Poland, realized the advantages of political and cultural cooperation. This recognition led to the formation of the Visegrad/Visegrad Four Group. This curriculum project discusses the evolution of the Visegrad Group/Visegrad Four with a primary focus on Hungary's participation in that organization, assess the progress of the group, show its setbacks, and investigate the economic spin-off of the group, the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). The project also pays attention to the tension among Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, due to the treatment of the 2.5-3 million ethnic Hungarians living in those countries. It further examines the role played by domestic politics on the relations among Visegrad Group/Visegrad Four members. The conclusion assesses the present status and considers the future role of the Visegrad Group/Visegrad Four. (Contains 36 notes.) (BT)