The 22-year-old Visegrád Group consists not only of four recent members of the EU, but constitutes one of the greatest regions of Europe with a population almost equal to that of Germany.

It is not simply the emerging segment of the old continent, but according to prognoses is expected to be a driver of economic growth in Europe in the near future – said András Doncsev, Parliamentary Minister of State of the Ministry of Human Resources in his speech at the Alumni Conference of the International Visegrád Found on Friday, in Budapest.

DownloadPhoto: Gergely Botár

The Minister of State reminded that not more than one and a half century ago Germany was formed from a multitude of smaller and larger principalities and kingdoms as well, and although the Visegrád Group has no objectives of this level of integration, there is significant cooperation between the member states in some important areas, which might make us a centre of science and production of Europe.

The activity of the International Visegrád Fund has so far contributed to the scientific research of more than 2 thousand university students, with a professional scholarship of more than 10 million Euros and supporting more than 4 thousand cooperation projects across borders in the fields of education, culture, science, health care and environmental protection.

DownloadPhoto: Gergely Botár

The Government of Hungary considers important that the scholarship students can understand the culture of the target country in more depth. Therefore we believe that to this end, the scientific training shall be delivered in the mother-tongue of the receiving country for a good proportion of the participants of these programmes. We wish to pursue this viewpoint as a principle in the future – added the Parliamentary Minister of State of the Ministry of Human Resources.

(Ministry of Human Resources)