Will there be honest cooperation ever between Hungary and Slovakia?

Remarks from Jobbik MEP Márton Gyöngyösi:

It is not a new idea to develop or institutionalize the alliance of neighbouring states that already established close economic relations, perhaps even have a lot of historical experiences and cultural elements in common. As an example, let me mention the Visegrad agreement made by Hungary, Czechia and Poland in 1335 in order to circumvent Vienna’s staple right.

Europe, and certain EU member states in particular, also have several cooperation agreements to effectively represent the interests of a region, in compliance with the EU’s objectives.

That’s why it was such a forward-looking idea for Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary after the collapse of Communism to draw on the legacy of the medieval agreement and decide to enter into a closer cooperation. For this purpose, they established the Visegrad Group which had four members instead of the original three when the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated from each other in 1993. Did we manage to utilize the opportunities offered by this cooperation?

What conclusions can we draw from the thirty years of the V4 project?

Unfortunately, the picture is quite mixed and it could hardly be called a success story. Even though Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have a lot of historical experiences in common and their interests overlap in many issues, they have also been divided by just as many historical grievances and even concrete disputes right from the birth of the cooperation. No real progress has been made in most of these issues ever since.

Hungary and Slovakia have been in constant and ever renewing disputes over such matters as the interpretation of their common history or the situation of the Hungarian minority living in Slovakia,

neither of which has been helped by the V4 cooperation to any extent whatsoever. As the westernmost member of the alliance, the Czech Republic has constantly been eyeing better options and trying to capitalize on its closer connections with Western Europe.

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Poland, being larger in territory and population than the other three members combined, obviously has a completely different view on any cooperation than the medium-sized Central European countries.

No wonder the V4 got into a deep freeze by the mid 2010s

and was constantly losing significance until the migration crisis broke out in 2015 and changed the trend.

This crisis brought a historical situation where Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest took up a considerably similar position. Many people thought at the time that the group’s position on migration may lead the four countries taking a common stance in other issues, too. However, it never happened. In fact, we may go as far as to say that the V4 project fell victim to the short-sightedness and political greed of the governments of its member states.