Asset Publisher

shutterstock/Fotophoto

Facts and Findings

The Misunderstood? The Visegrád States and the Conference on the Future of Europe

What Europe do the Visegrád states want, and is it appropriate to speak of an alliance in the case of the Visegrád Group?

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Visegrád Group, the heads of government of the Visegrád states agreed in Krakow in February 2021 to work together in the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe. How should this announcement be perceived, and which Europe do the Visegrád states stand for?

Asset Publisher

The Conference on the Future of Europe has begun on 9 May 2021. A goal of the process of reflection is to explore the question of what needs to improve in Europe, and the role it should play in the world. 

The Joint Presidency of the Conference on the Future of Europe also sets itself the objective of bringing together various visions for the future: a herculean task. Advocates of European federalism strive for a European federal state. National conservatives, on the other hand, want the EU to be understood as an alliance of nation states.

Different views on how the EU should look like in the future became clear again in negotiations on the 2021 – 2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, and the EU recovery fund. Here, the focus was placed on the Visegrád states that were often perceived as troublemakers, particularly in Western Europe. 

Throughout the Conference on the Future of Europe and beyond that it will be important to differentiate in line with European pluralism between challenging positions, and those which fundamentally contradict the spirit of the EU. In doing so, it is important not to evade the question about the relationship between national and European sovereignty.

Read the entire analysis here as a PDF. 
More information about the Conference on the Future of Europe here.

 

Asset Publisher

Contact

Alexander Beribes

Alexander Beribes

Western Balkans / Southeastern Europe

alexander.beribes@kas.de
Country reports
Europäische Kommission
March 18, 2021
read now

comment-portlet

Asset Publisher

About this series

The series informs in a concentrated form about important positions of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on current topics. The individual issues present key findings and recommendations, offer brief analyses, explain the Foundation's further plans and name KAS contact persons.

 

Dr. Kristin Wesemann

Dr

Head of Strategy and Planning

kristin.wesemann@kas.de +49 30 26996-3803

Sophie Steybe

Referentin Publikationen

sophie.steybe@kas.de +49 30 26996-3726