The John Lukacs Institute’s event focused on „Sustainability and European Competitiveness”, that is of vital importance for not only the V4 countries, but also for the entire EU. The programme started with an Opening Conference at the Ludovika University of Public Service (LUPS) in Budapest with distinguished speakers, such as (LUPS) Rector Gergely Deli; Bálint Czékus, Head of the Department for Central Europe at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Márton Ugrósdy, Deputy State Secretary at the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office; that was followed by a panel discussion, where Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi, Ambassador of Hungary to Austria, former Executive Director of the International Visegrad Fund; Dagmar Vránová, Senior Expert in Research, Innovation, Business Support and Competitiveness at the Department of Digital Economy and Smart Specialization in the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Czech Republic); Piotr Arak, Chief Economist at VeloBank, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw (Poland) and Marcel Dolobáč, Vice-Dean for Development and International Relations at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Kosice (Slovak Republic) were talking about “The main challenges of the competitiveness of the EU and of the V4 Region”.
After the Opening Conference, the programme continued in the historical city of Visegrad, where the participants could further examine and discuss in depth the topic of the challenges of competitiveness from different aspects in the frame of interactive discussions led by Piotr Arak, Chief Economist at VeloBank (Challenges of the European Competitiveness); Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Public Administration and Regional Development (The importance of the Central-European cooperation); Marcel Dolobáč from the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Kosice (Challenges of legal competitiveness), prof. UWr dr hab. Kamil Glinka, Deputy Director for Science and Development, Institute of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Wrocław (Pursuing green policies – Are the V4 countries competitively smart enough?); Balázs Bartóki-Gönczy, Vice Dean for Scientific Affairs, LUPS (European space sector); Vít Hloušek, Professor at Department of Political Science and Anglophone Studies of the Metropolitan University Prague and Boglárka Koller, Head of the Department of European Studies, Jean Monnet Chair at LUPS.
Participants and lecturers arrived from all the 4 Visegrad countries: from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the University of Warsaw, the University of Wrocław, the Metropolitan University of Prague, the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the University of Economics in Bratislava and the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest.
The 4th College of Visegrad+ was organised by the John Lukacs Institute (LUPS).
We are grateful for every speakers, lecturers and participants of the programme for their inspiring lectures, discussions and active participation, and for their commitment to the revitalization of Visegrad Cooperation! And last but not least, we are grateful for the financial support of the Hungarian V4 Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary that made this event possible!
To be continued in the spring of 2026!
Text: Zsuzsanna Fernbach-Czibók