EU Values Foresight
Politics
Seminars
EVENT Bratislava: What Are Slovakia’s Priorities For the Next EU Agenda?
7 December 2023
According to an extensive analysis of Future of Europe parliamentary debates, right-wing Eurosceptic parties in V4 oppose deeper integration, decrying the loss of sovereignty and domination by “old Europe” and its institutions.
The four Visegrad countries (V4) have had less in common in recent years than is often assumed. The divergence includes attitudes towards the Future of Europe, which incorporates further European integration. Yet, as a detailed analysis of parliamentary proceedings in the four countries shows in our study, the four former Eastern Bloc EU members share the strong conviction that their peripheral position has a key impact on what they can achieve within the EU.
While the study was conducted before the potentially transformative impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine, it gives hints as to how the V4 countries might approach the question of “rebalancing” between the old and new EU member countries.
Some V4 countries, primarily Poland, are often seen as capable of increasing their influence on EU affairs, having made a huge contribution to Western aid to Ukraine and being proven right on Russia’s aggressive approach to rebuilding its sphere of influence by military means.