The Visegrad Defence Cooperation

The aim of our paper is firstly to explain the reasons of the lower level of cooperation in this field (i.e. different level of defence spending, lack of real political will, lack of common interest and mutual trust, different perception of the security environment) so far, secondly to analyse the process leading to the establishment of this V4 EU BG, and last but not least the debates and questions concerning the future of the EU battlegroup concept (“Use it or lose it?”). Since the beginning, defence relations among V4 countries have fluctuated in the shadow of political will and ambitions. The question now revolves around the V4 ability to cooperate in the defence realm inside the structure of NATO and the EU. The paper evaluates the current situation, identifying obstacles in the way of and opportunities for a closer V4 cooperation. In our paper we would like to concentrate on the process of creating a new V4 EU Battlegroup to be in stand-by for rapid deployment in the first half of 2016 which aims to lead to an even closer regional defence cooperation between the V4 countries and probably to the establishment of permanent structures in the near future. Up until now, the defence cooperation among these countries has been under the expectations and the declared ambitions of their governments.