The Place of Poland in Central Europe

The Institute for Central European Studies organizes a one-day workshop highlighting the role of Poland in the region. 

The Russian-Ukrainian war that began more than year and a half ago has also altered the regional balance of power in Central Europe. The issues that we will discuss are the possible scenarios of the future of traditional forms of cooperation within the region (e.g. the Visegrad Group), the possible roles of relatively new cooperations (e.g. the Three Seas Initiative, the Bucharest Nine) and role Poland, as the country with the largest territory, population and GDP in our region in these. In the light of the presentations, we may try to assess whether Poland's prominent role will draw more world attention to our region and whether other Central European countries can benefit from this.

The program of the workshop will be as follows: 

10. 45 – 11.00 Registration

Welcome Notes

11.00–11.05 Pál Hatos (Head of the Institute of Central European Studies, Eötvös József Research Centre, Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest)

11.05–11.10 Bernát Török (Director of the Eötvös József Research Centre, Ludovika University of Public Service)

11.10–11.20 Sebastian Kęciek (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to Hungary)

Lectures

11.30–12.00 Miklós Mitrovits (Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Central European Studies, Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest)

Prometheism, Intermarium, Eastern Policy - Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds of Regional Cooperation from the Polish Perspective

12.00–12.30 Agnieszka Orzelska-Stączek (Head of the Project The Three Seas Initiative Research Center at the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

What is the Three Seas Initiative? Contradictory narratives on Central European regional cooperation in academic literature

12.40–14.15 Break

14.15 – 14.45 Łukasz Lewkowicz (Senior Analyst, Department of the Visegrad Group Institute of Central Europe, Lublin/ Assistant Professor, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin)

Formats of Regional Cooperation from the Perspective of Polish Foreign Policy

14.45 – 15.15 Marlena Gołębiowska (Senior Analyst, Department of the Baltics, Institute of Central Europe, Lublin/Research Assistant, The John Paul II Catholic University, Lublin)

Economic Cooperation in Central Europe: What is it and what could it be?

15.15 – 15.45 Zsombor Zeöld (Independent Researcher)

Changing landscape for regional cooperation in light of the war on Ukraine - can 3SI change?

15.45–16.30 Discussion