Publication details
Visegrad Four and EU Differentiated Integration : Activities, Perception and Self-Perception after the Refugee Crisis
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | There has been a growing discussion on the unity and internal integrity of the EU in recent years. The Visegrad Four group (V4) has played a somewhat ambiguous role in this debate. Looking at the literature and current political events, there seem to be two competing views. Whereas the first view is rather skepticalsceptical about the V4’s ability to have a coherent impact on European integration, the second perceives the V4 as one of the main sources of the current EU’´s problems. This chapter contributes to this discussion by adding a systematic analysis of the V4’s ability to promote a different Europe. It looks not only at the activities of the V4 (and its members), but it also considers the perception of the V4 by its EU partners. Using findings from three case studies – the migration crisis, Brexit and the debate on the future of the EU – it concludes that as activities at the group level are concerned, the V4 as a compact group is a myth. Moving to the perception dimension, the V4 seems to be a more influential “brand” in this regard than it is an active player. But more often than as a compact, four-member group, it appears to be recognized as 2+2 grouping where the first “2” stands for the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the second for Poland and Hungary. |
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