3rd College of Visegrad+ (April 2025)
From April 9–13, 2025, the John Lukacs Institute for Strategy and Politics of the University of Public Service hosted the third edition of the College of Visegrad+ Weekend University—this time in the city of Győr. The event brought together university students, young professionals, and academic experts from the four countries of the Visegrad Group—Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—for cross-border collaboration and dialogue.
This spring’s program offered a particularly rich and diverse set of experiences. The event opened on April 9 with a panel discussion on the “The importance of the Visegrad Cooperation with particular regard to security policy aspects,” featuring State Secretary for Security Policy Péter Sztáray, who provided insights into current regional security challenges.
On April 10, participants were hosted by Széchenyi István University. The day began with a comparative discussion on the public administration systems of the V4 countries, led by Gábor Hulkó. This was followed by a lecture from Dániel Feszty, Head of the Department of Whole Vehicle Engineering, focusing on the regional impact of advanced technologies—particularly in the automotive sector. The academic sessions were followed by a site visit to the Audi Hungaria factory in Győr, offering participants a practical perspective. The day concluded with a guided tour of the city’s historic landmarks, led by local language instructor John Paul Kowalchuk.
A special highlight of this year’s program was the thematic expansion into broader Central European cooperation under the “plus” element of CoV+. On April 11, participants traveled to Vienna, where they were welcomed at the Hungarian Embassy by Ambassador Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi. She delivered a deeply engaging talk about the region’s diplomatic and political dynamics, drawing from her personal experiences and her former role as executive director of the International Visegrad Fund. The Vienna program continued at the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, where experts Sebastian Schäffer and Peter Techet provided insight into Austrian perspectives on Visegrad cooperation.
On April 12, the academic program featured speakers from the Metropolitan University Prague. The day opened with Ladislav Cabada, Vice-Rector for Research and Creative Work, who traced the evolution of Austria’s perspective on Central European cooperation from the 1980s to today. This was followed by Petr Just, Head of the Department of Political Science and Anglophone Studies, who examined the relationship between the V4 countries and the United States during the second Trump administration. The final presentations were delivered by PhD students Daniel Šárovec and Filip Byrtus, who explored political communication within the V4 countries, focusing on the influence of Elon Musk and other global actors. It was particularly gratifying to welcome them as speakers, given their continued involvement as participants in the program since its first edition.
The event welcomed 23 students and 2 guest lecturers representing seven universities: Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Metropolitan University Prague, Masaryk University in Brno, University of Economics in Bratislava, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Eötvös Loránd University and the University of Public Service in Budapest.
The interactive nature of the program, along with the engagement of both speakers and participants, continues to foster a close-knit and growing CoV+ community. This network is built not only on shared academic interests and regional values, but also on the common aspiration to shape the future of Central Europe through cooperation.