The Visegrad Yearbook 2003 [antikvár]

Dear Reader, We set ourselves several goals when we established the Visegrád Youth Confederation, the most important being the fact that we regard as a homogeneous region the countries whose history, traditions and societies coincide in so many areas. We wish to accomplish projects that reinforce this kind of Central-European consciou sness. In order for us to learn to live with this homogeneity first and foremost we must get to know one another. Now that we are soon to become members of the European Union our unity may be more significant than ever before. The European Union grants us all sorts of assistance to be able to catch up with the member states as effectively as possible, but this process may be all the more accomplished if it entails our joining forces on a régiónál level too. It is by no coincidence that the big international organisations and multinational companies look upon us as a region (Central European Division) and not as individual countries. We must not forget either that as individual countries we do not possess effective means to enforce our interests, but functioning as a whole, due to the weight of our votes and size of our region, we may become serious players on the European political scene. The Visegrád Yearbook wishes to underscore this reality. Our aim has been to compile a book that presents the most essential elements of our lives and societies. Those who read this book will no doubt find a great number of similarities in the road covered by the Visegrád (V4) countries in the course of their economic, political and social processes. Now that the political world order seems to be taking a new shape, the stakes are really high. A competitive European Union can no longer be imagined without a competitive Central European region.