As its objective, the Polish presidency has adopted promoting initiatives aimed at increasing the prosperity of citizens, with a focus on improving multidimensional security and developing infrastructure connections and broadly understood connectivity. This assumption is accompanied by the belief that the Visegrad Group should be a tool for cooperation in those areas where the member states have common interests—such as further development of energy and transport infrastructure or greater involvement of European institutions in protecting the Schengen area’s external borders.

 

The presidency programme is based on three pillars:

·         Citizens’ Safety: encompasses security challenges in multiple dimensions including internal security, cybersecurity, health and civil protection, as well as police, consular and judiciary cooperation.

·         Connectivity: understood as further strengthening the region’s energy, road and digital infrastructure connections. Special attention will be given to transport, road safety, and further development of transport routes. The Polish presidency will also focus on the V4 countries’ security of raw materials.

·         Unleashing the Potential: all tasks aimed at boosting cooperation, including bottom-up and regional cooperation, among others through supporting border areas, strengthening academic, culture and tourism cooperation and cooperation on activating young people, and actions in the area of social and family policy. The International Visegrad Fund plays a crucial role here, with its highly appreciated activities which promote grant and scholarship programmes aimed at deepening cooperation between citizens and civil society organisations. This priority also includes discussion on EU horizontal issues, such as cohesion policy beyond 2027, agricultural policy, forestry, and EU finances.

Poland’s assumption of V4 chairmanship comes at a crucial time when Europe is shaping its new political framework following elections to the European Parliament, while the EU’s neighbourhood is affected by a conflict which poses a challenge to Euro-Atlantic security. Support for Ukraine is an element inextricably intertwined with the three priorities of Poland’s V4 presidency.

The V4 chairmanship was symbolically handed over by the Czech Republic in Prague  during a meeting of the National Coordinators of Visegrad Cooperation on 20 June 2024.