The Visegrad Group
A Conference for its 25 Year Anniversary
May 18th, 2016
The Czech Embassy in Berlin initiated a conference for the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Visegrad Group, in cooperation with the Berlin embassies of V4 countries and the German Society for Foreign Policy/DGAP. The event took place at the 25th of April 2016. The main aim of this event was to introduce the German public to the Visegrad Group, and recognize it as an established international brand that can look back on an interesting and exiting quarter of century of history.
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider, Director of the Otto Wolff Research Institute, opened the whole event. It was moderated by Dr. Gereon Schuch, Director of the DGAP. The panel was constituted by the so-called “V4 Panel of Eminent Personalities”, namely Dr. Libor Rouček (Czech Republic), Vice-President of the European Parliament, the MEP and Secretary Dr. Eduard Kukán (Slovak Republic), the Hungary Foreign Minister Prof. Dr. János Martonyi, Dr. Mateusz Gniazdowski, Deputy of the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. Finally, Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth, Former President of the German Bundestag took part to the discussion, giving the speech “Germany and the countries of Central Europe”.
Another part of the conference provided the speech from experts of the four Visegrad countries, namely “The Visegrad countries, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary-between common objectives and national interests”. Around 160 guests attended the event, among which we find members of the federal government, researchers and scholars from the academic circle, and the Berlin diplomatic corps. As part of the event, an exhibition of the Czech V4 Presidency for historical development took place. It was also about the successes and areas of activity that the Visegrad Group obtained in the last 25 years, and it was an opportunity to look and to taste the culinary specialties of the Visegrad countries.
References:
News from Berlin
Paola Pluchino, Berlin Global
