In close cooperation with the universities of the Visegrad countries
On 28-29 November 2019 a two-day-long professional workshop for experts from universities in Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary was held at the Ludovika University of Public Service (UPS). At the event organised by the Institute for Strategic Studies, held under the title “Different perspectives - common interests”, topics were discussed such as, for example: common historical heritage, cross-border developments, foreign policy cooperation, commonly representable positions on European issues and the organisational framework for regional cooperation.
On behalf of the organisers, Gergely Prőhle emphasised that Central European cooperation has a long tradition, and the key to its successful continuation is intergenerational cooperation. The Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies highlighted: in this aspect, luckily the workshop was fortunate to attract a wide range of participants, ranging from students to those at the peak of their successful academic careers. Deputy Minister Balázs Orbán focused his welcome speech on the role of strategic thinking. The State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office pointed out: in Central Europe, next to the integration efforts at the turn of the millennium, insufficient time and energy was devoted to strategy formulation. "We need to make up for this as soon as possible, by observing each other, and not necessarily by indiscriminately adopting Western models" - Balázs Orbán emphasised. In his speech, former Foreign Minister János Martonyi outlined the historical background of Central European solidarity and sketched out the similarities in the economic development of the Visegrad countries. According to the Honorary Doctor of UPS, the European Union provides a clear framework for our cooperation, but on the basis of our national interests, building from the bottom up, we can make better use of this framework than we do today.
It was said, that in this area in a few concrete issues the results are already clearly visible. The aim of the workshop was to support the College of Visegrad+ initiative of the Institute for Strategic Studies and to prepare the planned educational programmes. Numerous concrete proposals were formulated, and the participants unanimously expressed their intention to continue cooperating closely together.