Past lessons, current issues and future prospects of Visegrad co-operation within NATO and ESDP

Hungarian Institute of International Affairs

 Co-organizing partners

Institute of International Relations, Prague
Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Bratislava
Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), Warsaw

2nd Conference in the project of

”Creating a sphere of security in wider Central Europe: sharing the V4 know-how in cooperation on security with the neighbouring regions”

Budapest, 8-9 April 2010

Past lessons, current issues and future prospects of Visegrad co-operation within NATO and ESDP

 

With the support of the International Visegrad Fund

 

Programme

8 April 2010

13.30. Opening of the conference: Dr. JÁNOS TERÉNYI, Director of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs

13.45. Keynote speech: Dr. PÉTER BALÁZS, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs

14.15. Introductory remarks to the conference by Professor E. SZILVESZTER VIZI, President of the Hungarian Atlantic Council

14.30.

Panel I: The Visegrad Group and the strategic redefinition of NATO’s mission: national contributions to the new Strategic Concept of the Atlantic Alliance

Panel keynote speech: JANUSZ ONYSZKIEWICZ, Member of the European Parliament, President of Euro-Atlantic Association, Poland - The place of the Visegrad region within the evolving perceptions and functions of the Transatlantic security community

Issues for consideration:

• Strategic choices and preferences of the V4 with regard to the short- and long-term role of the Atlantic Alliance
• Contending priorities and tasks for the Alliance in response to security risks and threats in regional, continental and global context
• V4 perceptions on the continued credibility and centrality of Article 5 in the collective security vocation of NATO
• V4 views on NATO as an enhanced overarching framework for security in Central Europe and in its southern as well as eastern neighbourhood: enlargement or partnerships as preparation and/or substitution for membership?

Moderator:  Dr. TOMÁŠ STRÁŽAY, Research Fellow, Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Bratislava

Speakers:

• Czech Republic: KAREL ZETOCHA, Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies, Defence University, Brno
• Hungary: Dr. ZOLTÁN SZENES, former Chief of General Staff, Hungary
• Slovakia: RÓBERT VASS, Secretary General of the Slovak Atlantic Commission
• Poland: TOMASZ ŁĘKARSKI, Deputy Director, Department of Security Policy, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

16.30 – 17.00.  Coffee break

17.00 – 18.30. 

Panel II: The sustaining tasks of Atlantic associations in the Visegrad countries: raising public awareness and generating intellectual discourse on the continued importance of Transatlantic relations and solidarity

Speakers:

• Czech Republic: ZBYNĚK PAVLAČÍK, Secretary General of Jagello 2000 - Czech Euro-Atlantic Council
• Hungary: Prof. E. SZILVESZTER VIZI, President of the Hungarian Atlantic Council
• Poland: Amb. JERZY NOWAK, President, Polish Euro-Atlantic Association, Warsaw
• Slovakia: Amb. RASTISLAV KÁČER, President of the Slovak Atlantic Commission

18.30. Reception - Hotel Corinthia

9.30.

Panel III: Perceptions of ESDP in the Visegrad countries and among their neighbours with regard to current and future EU-NATO relations

Keynote speech: Brigadier General GÁBOR HORVÁTH, Director, Concepts and Capability Directorate of the European Union Military Staff (EUMS), Brussels

Issues for consideration:

• V4 in the context of NATO-EU co-operation: reinforcing aspirations of capability developments and/or mutually exclusive commitments to simultaneous operations?
• After Lisbon: the relevance, the meaning and implications of the mutual defence clause in the new EU treaty for the Union as political integration and some of members with neutrality as their underlying tenet of national security policy

Moderator: ŁUKASZ KULESA, Head of Research Office, Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), Warsaw

Speakers:

• Czech Republic: Dr. VÍT STŘÍTECKÝ, Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations (ÚMV), Prague
• Estonia: Dr. ARUNAS MOLIS, Department of Political & Strategic Studies, Baltic Defence College, Tartu
• Hungary: PÉTER SZTÁRAY, Head of Department of Security Policy and Non-proliferation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary
• Poland: Dr. TADEUSZ CHABIERA, Deputy-Director of the Institute of International Law, European Union and International Relations, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and Vice-President of the Euro-Atlantic Association
• Slovakia: Dr. RÓBERT ONDREJCSÁK, Executive director, Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA), Bratislava

12.00. Buffet lunch

13.00.

Panel IV: The possibilities of co-operation for the Visegrad countries and their Eastern Neighbours in the development of security and defence policy in the EU and beyond

Keynote speech: Amb. Prof. ISTVÁN GYARMATI, President and CEO, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Budapest

Issues for consideration:

• V4 Battlegroup initiative: state of play – motivations, achievements, and obstacles
• V4 visions of the future direction of ESDP evolution: the use and added value of ESDP in the security of Central Europe and in its neighbourhood
• Prospects and options for the inclusion of neighbouring states into possible enhanced forms of political and security co-operation organised around the V4 countries within the Union

Moderator:  Dr. MICHAL KOŘAN, Head of Research, Institute of International Relations (ÚMV), Prague

Speakers:

• Poland: Dr. MAREK MADEJ, Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), Warsaw
• Slovakia: VLADIMÍR TARASOVIČ, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA), Bratislava
• Sweden: Dr. GUSTAV LINDSTRÖM, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Geneva
• Ukraine: MYKHAILO SAMUS, Head of office in Prague, Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS)

15.00. Closing remarks: Dr. JÁNOS TERÉNYI, Director of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs

The conference was supported  by the International Visegrad Fund