Filip Nerad, an analyst long affiliated with the GLOBSEC think tank, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that a thaw in relations between Warsaw and Budapest had opened the door for the four-nation bloc to reassert itself on the European stage. Ties between the governments had all but broken down during a period of friction between Poland and Hungary, even as lower-level cooperation among ministries, experts and regional bodies continued largely unaffected.
"I would call it a restart at the highest political level", Nerad said, describing the Bratislava summit as marking the end of what he called years of "clinical death" for contacts between the group's prime ministers, now "reanimated".
Slovakia, which currently holds the rotating V4 presidency, organised Thursday's gathering with the aim of restoring the group's visibility and influence within the EU. As part of that push, Bratislava extended an invitation to Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin under the so-called V4+ format, which brings outside leaders into selected talks.
The renewed unity could prove consequential as the EU negotiates its next long-term budget, covering 2028 to 2034, Nerad said — though only if the four Visegrad states can align on shared goals and rally broader support. He pointed to an existing coalition of EU countries known as the "friends of cohesion", which favours continued funding for cohesion policy.
"If a larger group forms that pushes for more money to go towards cohesion policy and traditional spending, it definitely has a chance of achieving something", he said.
Unity, not numbers, would determine the outcome, he added. "If they are divided, with one country wanting more for cohesion, another for agriculture and a third for something else, their efforts will certainly not succeed", Nerad said.
Thursday's meeting follows a late-June gathering in Hungary, held as Budapest wrapped up its one-year term at the helm of the group. That session, coming soon after a change of government in Hungary, was widely viewed as reviving regional cooperation after a period of dormancy.
The Visegrad Group was established in 1991 by Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia; Czechia and Slovakia inherited Czechoslovakia's place after its 1993 split. The bloc has no formal institutional structure, relying instead on consultations among prime ministers and government ministries, with cross-border initiatives forming a central pillar of its work.
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Source: PAP