RHETORICAL STRATEGIES, INSTITUTIONAL DILEMMAS: THE VISEGRÁD GROUP AND THE BALTIC COOPERATION FACING THE EU AND NATO ACCESSION PROCESS
RHETORICAL STRATEGIES, INSTITUTIONAL DILEMMAS: THE VISEGRÁD GROUP AND THE BALTIC COOPERATION FACING THE EU AND NATO ACCESSION PROCESS

Summary/Abstract: The relation between the development of regional cooperation arrangements in Central and East Europe and the EU and NATO accession processes has been a complex one. Most importantly, these processes cannot be convincingly portrayed as triggering the formation of genuine functional cooperation at regional level in the former communist space. In the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, the creation of loose regional initiatives in the area was a quick fix to the rapidly changing European security environment. For the more entrepreneurial governments in Central and Eastern Europe, the promotion of international regionalism seemed to be also an opportunity for a long waited rapprochement to the military and economic security organizations of the democratic West, while freeing themselves from the Soviet control. However, in relation to the EU and NATO accession, strengthening regional ties proved to be a double-edged instrument both on institutional and rhetorical grounds. As shown in the case of the Visegrád Group, the consolidation of regional economic cooperation hindered the economic integration within the European Community and vice versa. At rhetorical level, insisting on being considered as a group in the accession processes meant a delay in acquiring membership, as this could not have been granted until the least developed partner of the group was fully prepared. Coupled with the fact that progress in this preparation was judged solely on individual basis, these factors led to an increased competition among the regional initiatives partners and consequently to a diminishing cooperation within the regional arrangements. This was most visible in the case of the Baltic Cooperation, whose establishment and development was even less motivated by its members‟ will to involve in building frameworks of functional cooperation among themselves. For these reasons, it is very unlikely that functional regional cooperation develops on the medium run among the Visegrád or the Baltic partners within either the European Union or the North Atlantic Alliance, despite the fact that the partners expressed their desire to maintain their already existing links and have common actions. At most, as the recent dynamic of these initiatives seems to indicate, the two regional identity brands and particularly the “Visegrád cooperation” may be politically activated at any time as a rhetorical instrument. 12

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