Zrealizowane

The project entitled “Warsaw Security Forum 2019: V4 Dialogue on Eastern Partnership” was carried out between May 2019 and January 2020 as part of the Casimir Pulaski Foundation’s annual flagship event: the Warsaw Security Forum (2-3 October 2019). The initiative was realized with three partner organizations: the Slovak Security Policy Institute (Slovakia), EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czech Republic) and Antall József Knowledge Centre of Political and Social Sciences (Hungary). The project was co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

The aim of the project was to identify the most pressing security challenges currently faced by the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) and – in this context – to prepare common policy guidelines proposed by the Visegrad states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) as a way forward for the region. Increasing the importance of EaP countries for EU foreign policy realization requires more initiative to be taken by the V4 states, which includes creating a common advocacy platform to further the Eastern Partnership project. Such an effort was made in the framework of the project, which included an expert roundtable and a High-Level Session at the Warsaw Security Forum plenary, and convened over 60 experts from V4 and EaP countries, as well as an audience of over 300 participants.

The deliverables of the project were the following:

1. Roundtable “Discussing the Eastern Partnership 2.0: Visegrad States’ Perspectives” (2^nd October 2019), Warsaw, Poland. The purpose of the roundtable was to gather representatives of the public administration, think-tanks, Academy, and media from countries of the V4 group and member states of Eastern Partnership to discuss the democratic transition experience of the Visegrad states and what lessons-learned where there for the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood. The event gathered over 50 experts, including 8 speakers.

Moderator:

• Adam Reichardt – Editor-in-Chief, New Eastern Europe

Speakers:

• Beata Surmacz, Ph.D.: Associate Professor at Maria Skłodowska Curie University in Lublin (Poland)
• Zbyněk Pavlačík, Director and Co-founder, Jagello 2000 (Czech Republic)
• Jaroslav Kurfürst, Special Envoy for the Eastern Partnership, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (Czech Republic)
• Peter Dobrowiecki – Author, Head of the EU-V4 Office, Antall József Knowledge Centre (Hungary)
• Peter Stepper – Author, International Relations Manager at Security Policy Office, Antall József Knowledge Centre (Hungary)
• Danylo Lubkivsky – Member of the Board of Management, Open Ukraine Foundation, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine (2014-2016), Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine (2014) (Ukraine)
• Borys Tarasyuk – Ambassador, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (1998-2000, 2005-2007), Member of the Ukrainian Parliament (2002-2019) (Ukraine)
• Andrew A. Michta – Dean of the College of International and Security Studies at George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, USA

2. High-level session “The Eastern Partnership at 10” – (3^rd October 2019), Warsaw, Poland. The discussion highlighted the main challenges both the EU and EaP states are facing after 10 years since the beginning of the initiative. The discussion showcased the perspectives of two founding states of the project (Poland and Sweden) and Eastern Partnership states (Belarus and Georgia). The session gathered an audience of 300 Warsaw Security Forum participants.

Moderator:

• Terry Martin – Senior News Anchor, Deutsche Welle TV, Germany

Speakers:

• Jan Hofmokl – Director at Eastern Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland
• Anna Westerholm – Ambassador for the Eastern Partnership, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
• Oleg Kravchenko – Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Belarus
• Sophie Katsarava – Chairperson, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Parliament, Georgia

A full recording of the High-Level Session “The Eastern Partnership at 10”.

3. Policy guidelines for the Eastern Partnership partner states from each of our states perspective (Slovak, Hungarian, Czech, Polish respectively).

The purpose of this output was to produce a tangible set of guidelines for the EaP states in a form of compilation of policy papers, that include the perspective from each of the V4 states on different policy issues and the Partnership’s future as a whole. The so-formed White Paper has the potential to benefit the EaP partner states via highlighting the best practices and insight from Visegrad states.

This set of policy papers followed the debate started during Warsaw Security Forum 2019 about the EaP’s future in the light of its 10^th anniversary. White Paper with a compilation of policy papers:

The chapters of the Policy guidelines are available to download below:

The project entitled “Coordinating the V4 Strategy towards NATO Strategic Concept and European Strategic Autonomy” is aimed at supporting the coordination of the V4 group stance regarding the new NATO Strategic Concept recommended by the “NATO 2030” report and by the NATO Secretary General. It also aims to address the V4 strategy concerning the idea of the EU Strategic Autonomy proposed by some European leaders as a core concept of the EU Strategic Compass. The initiative is being undertaken by four partner organizations: The Casimir Pulaski Foundation (Poland), the Antall József Knowledge Centre (Hungary), the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czech Republic), and the Slovak Security Policy Institute (Slovakia). The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

The V4 countries and wider CEE region have repeatedly proven in the past that they can defend their common core interests in the international stage by acting together. The goal of the project is to support the coordination of the V4 group stance vis-à-vis two crucial processes currently taking place – the work on a new NATO Strategic Concept and discussion on the EU strategic autonomy. The project aims to help the V4 countries:

1) Define a common vision of the strategic dimension of NATO and EU with regards to the V4 countries;
2) Determine the most crucial security threats and challenges to the V4 countries and promote understanding of them to partners in the NATO, EU, and outside the V4 group;
3) Shape the V4 countries’ vision of what their common interests are, applied to the future of NATO and the EU and the security and defense relationships between them;
4) Inform external policy makers and the general public of the V4 developments in these areas, and the common position on the future of NATO and EU Strategic Autonomy.

The project encompasses three core elements:

a) a series of four webinars organized by the partners of the project;
b) an online panel discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum 2021;
c) a concluding report written by high-level experts from V4 countries on the future of NATO and the EU Strategic Autonomy.