The Visegrád Group and the railway development interest articulation in Central Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper intends to advance thinking on the catalysts of V4 railway policy making by offering an overview of the nature and directions of spillovers triggering joint Visegrád railway projects. The Czech, the Hungarian, the Polish and the Slovak governments help each other adopt international railway traffic standards and legislation as the Visegrád Cooperation provides a forum to agree on lobbying positions within international organisations. By citing real-life examples of V4 railway cooperation supporting the neofunctionalist or the liberal intergovernmentalist theoretical frameworks, the paper shall contribute to the better understanding of the spillover phenomena in Central Eastern Europe, while seeking answers on how international railway policies shape the Visegrád Cooperation’s transport strategies through different spillovers. The paper concludes that in Visegrád countries, spillovers are primarily driven by governmental actions that serve as mediators of market, civil society, and financial needs. However, spillovers would hardly take place without the EU’s legal-institutional framework.

Keywords

• transport
• spillover
• integration
• development
• neofunctionalism
• liberal intergovernmentalism