Szabolcs Takács, Deputy State Secretary for Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared that since Hungary holds the rotating presidency for the Central European Initiative (CEI) in 2013 and for the Visegrád Four Group (V4) in 2013-2014, this year and the following year are years of Central Europe in Hungarian foreign policy.

V4 cooperation has demonstrated that the four countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – have plenty of shared interests, Deputy State Secretary Szabolcs Takács said in a lecture at the European Meeting Point set up by the European Commission Representation at Budapest's Sziget Festival.

It created a new dimension for cooperation when the four Visegrád countries joined the European Union in 2004. Their foreign policy strategies show several identical features, and accordingly they have a „Visegrád trademark” in common that can be displayed with relation to both Brussels and Washington, Szabolcs Takács claimed. The Visegrád countries’ foreign policy dimension has two priorities, namely Eastern Partnership and the European integration of the Western Balkans, he added.

The Visegrád Four strive to cooperate with their neighbours more intensively than their western European partners do. The Vilnius summit of the Eastern Partnership in late November will be an important stage where Ukraine will hopefully sign an association and a free trade agreement with the EU, while Moldova, Georgia and Armenia will ratify their similar agreements, the Deputy State Secretary confirmed. He also identified narrowing the gap between Russia and the European Union as another Hungarian foreign policy goal.

Deputy State Secretary Szabolcs Takács pointed out that Hungary puts greater emphasis on the European integration of the Western Balkans than on Eastern Partnership. Hungary seeks to convince its western European partners about the need to continue EU enlargement despite its apparent „enlargement fatigue”. Hungary has a vested interest in the consolidation of stability and democratic institutions in the Western Balkans, he stressed.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)