On November 9, 2016 the ICDT organized a roundtable discussion with Beata Jaczewska, Director of the International Visegrad Fund at the ICDT HQ, in the framework of the program titled “Silver Anniversary of the V4 cooperation”.

At the morning session, Ms. Jaczewska discussed the future of the V4 cooperation with researchers and students of the youth generation from the so-called Future Leaders ICDT Internship Program. Director Jaczewska also provided a first had experience on the environment of modern diplomacy as well as raised some issues on the recent political difficulties and challenges.

The aim of the afternoon session of the program was to bring together, leading governmental experts and non-governmental organizations to a roundtable discussion that deals with the history, the present and the future strategy of a highly successful regional cooperation, i.e. the Visegrad 4 cooperation.

In his keynote speech, Mr. Géza Jeszenszky, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first democratically elected government of Hungary has shared his experience on the emergence of the formal cooperation between Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Minister Jeszenszky also highlighted some strategic options for the future of the cooperation, especially in the light of the US Presidential Election in 2016.

The chair of the roundtable, Amb. István Gyarmati has asked Ms. Jaczewska to talk about the role of the International Visegrad Fund within the V4 cooperation, its functions and policy strategies.

The participants of the roundtable (Ms. Zsuzsa Végh, researchr of the Center for European Neighborhood Studies, Ms. Edit Zgut, researcher of the Political Capital Institute, Mr. Bence Bauer, projekt coordinator of the Konrad Adaneur Stiftung, Mr. Sándor Köles, President of the Carpathian Foundation, Mr. Máté Szalai, Researcher of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Ádám Budai, Project Coordinator of the Budapest Centre for Mass Atrocities Prevention) highlighted the importance of the Fund’s donor activities, shared their thoughts on the topics and participated in an active and lively debate that followed the keynote speeches.