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Sarajevo Times (5 July 2017)

Yesterday night, in the organization of the Embassy of Hungary and Embassy of Poland in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a garden party on the occasion of the Hungarian Presidency of the Visegrad Group was held. Namely, on 4th July 2017, the Embassy of Hungary took over the presidency of the Visegrad Group from the Polish Embassy.

Twenty six years ago in Visegrad, Hungary, the old royal city, the three Presidents: of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland signed a solemn agreement on regional cooperation. In 1993 the Visegrad triangle transformed into the V4, due to the creation of new states of Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. This was a finalization of the idea that emerged among dissidents of Central and Eastern Europe in recent years of communism.

“We: Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks and Poles opened together in the year 1990 new chapter of the history with the intention to break the historic curse of geopolitics and solve the great problems of life together: ecology, communication, unification of the realities of economic life,” said at the opening speech H.E. Mr. Andrzej Krawczyk, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to BiH.

Moreover, Ambassador Krawczyk emphasized that the Visegrad Group adopted the principle of cooperation with minimum bureaucracy. In fact, it works on the basis of working meetings of the leaders of the states and ministers. Current work organizes and coordinates each Member State in twelve-month periods in turn. Between July 1, 2016 and June, Poland fulfilled these duties.

For his part, Ambassador of Hungary to BiH Jozsef Negyesi said that from July 2017 to June 2018, Hungary is holding the rotating Presidency of the Visegrad Group for the fifth time. The importance of the Visegrad Cooperation, based on the principles guiding the V4 since its founding in 1991, namely mutual trust, flexibility, and a focus on common traditions, values and interests, has been growing recently.

The Fifth Hungarian Presidency aims to be successful as Poland’s, and hopes to be able to present a long list of success next year when it will hand over the presidency to Slovakia.

Foreign Minister of BiH Igor Crnadak has appealed to all Visegrad Group countries to show the strong support to BiH in the coming period when it is expected from BiH to be eligible for membership in the European Union.

Moreover, he added that he is proud to see the flag of BiH together with the four flags of the Visegrad Group – Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland – as well as with the flag of the European Union.

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