The dissertation is devoted to the research of the national factors’ impact on
the European integration process of the Visegrad Group countries. The impact of
national political factors on European integration processes of Poland, Hungary,
Czech Republic and Slovakia is comprehensively investigated.
In the second half of the 20th century, the European integration has become
one of defining processes for international relations. Meaningfully, European
integration is defined as regionalization on the background of worldwide
globalization processes. There’s two main vectors distinguished in the European
integration process - expansion and deepening. The first trend is clearly directed
from West to East. This movement’s main motives are primarily economical and
political. Both countries that are already members of the EU and countries that intend
to become members of the Community are interested in it. The goal of the former is
to increase its political influence, expand the sales market and investments,
strengthen its security, stability, democracy and human rights. For the joining
countries, the EU serves as civilizational standard for their development. The second
trend - the deepening of European integration - is a process that’s becoming more
and more relevant nowadays.
The Visegrad Group countries are characterized as those where EU
enlargement has been completed, but the processes of deepening the integration are
topical and complex. This is primarily due to the fact that those are the post-socialist
countries, each of them has gone through its own complex path of national state
formation. While the economic interests of the Visegrad Group countries are8
completely coincide with general European aspirations, political factors are barely
an incentive for unification with Western Europe.
European integration has its own laws that cannot be bypassed, and it is
impossible to join the European Union without fulfilling formalized requirements.
However, the mechanism of European integration deepening inevitably faces
contradictions that constantly inhibit further development of the project in its
modern format. First, it’s balancing between national interests and supranational
problems, that constantly accompanies all EU processes. Majority of the important
pan-European issues are resolved consensually by all members, which, along with
the active expansion of the European Union, creates obstacles for further deep
integration. Secondly, the constant expansion of the project creates conditions for
informal political unions among EU members, the basis of which is lobbying of
common national interests in the EU.
The scientific novelty of the obtained results is determined by the purpose and
tasks of the research, the means of their solution and consists in the following:
for the first time:
– researched the complex influence of national factors on political process of
the international integration;
– researched the central role of the Visegrad Group countries’ internal
sovereignty in the integration process;
– researched the role of national factors in the formation of the Visegrad
Group countries’ international policy;11
improved:
– outlined the theoretical justification of the categorical research apparatus; in
particular, the national factors’ role and place in EU integration process study
approaches;
– researched the basis for the formation of Visegrad Group’s international
policy main directions on regional and subregional levels;
acquired further development:
– theoretical models of the European integration process, taking into account
the researched influence of national factors;
– understanding of national bases of European integration policy;
– supplemented the scientific argumentation regarding the variability of
national factors in the integration process.
