The policy paper Rethinking V4’s Eurozone Dilemmas after the UK Referendum published by the Association for International Affairs (AMO) provides a list of seven recommendations for the Visegrad Group (including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). Recommendations take into account current political reality within the V4, foremost the fact that the adoption of the euro over the coming years is – for various reasons – inconceivable in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three countries will probably fail to join the Eurozone by 2025. None of them has set a firm target date and there is usually a lack of cross-party political consensus on the issue, not to mention weak support among public opinion. 

Some of the recommendations follow:

The non-Eurozone countries (including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) should be careful not to position themselves as a semipermanent club of non-Eurozone countries. 

Eurozone-related expertise in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary should be cultivated. The three countries are obliged to join the Eurozone in the future, according to the Treaties, and should closely follow developments in the Eurozone. This must be the case not only of their governments, but also of academia, think-tanks and social partners. 

 A constructive and proactive approach towards Germany in sectorial policies would help to improve the image of the V4 vis-à-vis Berlin (and the rest of the EU) which has been tarnished by the V4’s approach towards the migration crisis.

It is a vital interest of the V4 to make the project of the Capital Markets Union an EU-wide project. The underdevelopment of capital markets is to a varying degree a problem of all V4 countries. 

Read full analysis here (in English).