The Visegrad Four as a Tool of the Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic

Abstract

The study is focused on the analysis of the importance of the Visegrad Four as an instrument of the foreign (and European) policy of the Slovak Republic in three different time periods. This period is defined by the establishment of the Slovak Republic in 1993 and its accession to the European Union in May 2004. It was dominated by the fulfillment of fundamental foreign policy priorities, such as the integration of the Slovak Republic into the EU and NATO. In the second, post-accession period, which covers the years 2004-2015, Slovakia already acts as a full member of the European Union and actively participates in the formation of EU policies. The third period begins in 2015 with the outbreak of the migration crisis and lasts to the present, which is marked by a crisis related to the outbreak of a coronavirus pandemic. The author concludes that V4 can be considered continuously as an important tool of foreign and European policy of Slovakia, while its use in different periods varied, not only in terms of the intensity of its use, but in the context of the diversity of actors involved in cooperation.