Foreign Trade Potentials of Central European Countries and their Strategic Aiming at European Union Integration
Foreign Trade Potentials of Central European Countries and their Strategic Aiming at European Union Integration

Summary/Abstract: Over the initial transformation stages Central European countries (CECs) were forced to realize a process preferred to by the Western Europe in order to support intra-regional co-operation as a condition or presupposition of real re-integration of the Europe. The priority objectives of this intra-regional co-ope-ration was the need for co-ordinating the efforts and measures on preparation of the countries for EU accession and supporting development of their mutual trade relations. Despite the realization of these objectives was supported also by establishing some institutional prerequisites (Visegrad countries grouping, closing the Central European free trade zone agreement, Customs Union Treaty between the SR and the CR), CEFTA countries recorded little progress in carrying out these objec-tives. There exist several reasons for that. Membership in Visegrad grou-ping was considered as provisional, especially when the question of EU Eastern enlarge-ment was raised, which has got priority in foreign policy of Visegrad group coun-tries. Another significant reason was the asserting own national interests and con-crete steps to intra-regional co-operation, namely the antivisegrad policy from the Czech government side and then unsatisfactory bilateral relations of Slovakia with neighbours. Finally, there were also important purely economic reasons consisting mainly in real finding and employing external potentials for ensuring economic growth in CECs. The Central European countries grouping either in the form of original Vise-grad four or CEFTA 5 respectively (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia) after being thus pushed in a shade, came again to the fore within the process of reintegrating Europe, when the problem of outsiders in the process of NATO and European Union enlargement appeared. This happened, when the Agenda 2000 strategy gave certain signals to the end of road for CEFTA, but at the same time it was thrown into a new role as an alternative to the European Union membership

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