Visegrad Between Domestic Politics and EU Policy: The Case of Hungary

The Visegrád co-operation initiated after the system changes in the East Central European region was established parallel to the aspirations of the ECE states to become members of the European Union. While the Visegrád group came to life soon after its idea was introduced, covering numerous areas of cooperation (foreign policy, education, environment, infrastructure, science and technology, etc.) it did not substitute EU membership. Nevertheless, recently the importance of V4  cooperation has been gradually increased within the Union, in our days both beacuse of the migration crisis and the effects of Brexit. In the paper the place of Visegrad co-operation in Hungarian foreign policy will be analysed in the framework of Robert Putnam’s two level game-theory: Hungarian EU-policy and its approach to the Visegrad co-operation will be analysed as embedded in domestic government strategies.