Research Papers

The V4 has become a respected model of multilateral-regional co-operation whose constituents, following the accession to the EU and NATO, have committed themselves to transmitting their experience to partners from the East and South-East Europe. They have also expressed a will to co- ordinate their proceeding in other closely intertwined issues of regional importance (tackling the energy security problems, first of all). To a greater or lesser extent, such commitments have been translated into strategic documents of the Visegrád countries and their activities on the ground. Besides specifying Slovak foreign policy priorities in this respect, this paper detects whether and how the Slovak Republic has stuck to the agreed-upon effort to meet these regional challenges in concert with regional partners (in the V4 or V4+ format), in particular of how it has contributed to the proclaimed interest in the V4 synergy in furthering the Eastern Partnership and the EU enlargement. The analysis covers a period since the beginning of 2009 until now, when the Visegrád Group has enjoyed a symbolically upgraded standing within the EU due to the Czech, Hungarian and Polish EU presidencies. It takes into account the context of the reviewed ENP - applying an increased differentiation and conditionality.