Role of Presidency of the Visegrad Group
(Annex to the Contents of Visegrad Cooperation approved by the Prime Ministers summit Bratislava on 14th May 1999)
In accordance with the "Content of Visegrád co-operation" approved by the Prime Ministers summit at Bratislava, the respective Visegrad countries hold a presidency on a rotating basis (in the order Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia) with mandate for one year.
The role of the Presidency is based on following principles:
Within the external dimension:
- If a proposal is made for a top-level meeting in the V4+1 format, such initiative will first be discussed among the Visegrad countries and only then presented to a third country by the V4 presiding country;
- The same mechanism will apply to meetings at lower levels or expert talks held in the V4+1 format.
Within the internal dimension:
- Expert talks (e.g. at the level of departments of individual ministries) can any time be called by any V4 country. Expert talks need not take place in the presiding country;
- The ministries themselves organize cooperation between individual ministries.
The presiding country at the beginning of its mandate, works out a document summing up the priorities of its Presidency and call expert consultations on this document. The document will include a part devoted to planned inter-ministerial cooperation in the drafting of which all parties will participate. The Prime Ministers at their summit assess results of the implementation of the document and take relevant political decisions in those cases where needed. The fulfillment of such decisions is a subject of assessment of the next Summit.
Approved by the Prime Ministers at the summit in Esztergom, Hungary, 29 June 2002. | 
