Region: Eventful year for V4 nations...

The Visegrad region spent much of 2011 in the international headlines thanks largely to having two of its countries hold the rotating six-month European Union presidency, while another sacrificed its government to try and help save the ailing euro.

Hungary and Poland - which, combined with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, make up the so-called Visegrad 4 - each took their turn as the 27-member bloc's nation-in-chief, but it was Slovakia that made probably the region's biggest splash in 2011 by nearly torpedoing an EU-wide effort to rescue the euro and having its government collapse amid pressure from the international community.

Hungary's EU

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán proclaimed Hungary's turn as president a smashing success having achieved "98 percent of our objectives."

But EU experts both inside and outside of Hungary say the nation was largely ineffectual, and even lost face internationally because the EU presidency put some of Orbán's questionable domestic policies under the global microscope, most notably a draconian media law enacted by the government in December. The law created a new body called the National Communications and Media Authority, which was authorized to punish media outlets that covered political manners in any way deemed "unbalanced."

"Their domestic political agenda didn't seem to be in tune with the rest of the EU," said Richard Whitman, an associate fellow with Chatham House, a London-based policy institute. "People in Brussels decided very early on that they were going to have to grit their teeth and just wait for [Hungary] to finish their semester."

Both during and after their presidency, Orbán and his Fidesz party - which has an overwhelming majority in both houses of Parliament, all but guaranteeing passage of any Orbán-backed measure - continued making aggressive domestic moves, namely in the form of a new constitution that was passed in April and garnered yet more criticism, both at home and abroad, for having been pushed through without a referendum.

German Minister of State Werner Hoyer said, "The fears that arose at the start of this year [regarding Hungary's EU presidency], in conjunction with the new law on the media, have not slackened off; they are amounting as a result of the new constitution."

Poland's turn

For Poland to get through its turn at the EU helm, it first needed to get through the distraction of its own national elections. The first three months of its EU presidency saw Prime Minister Donald Tusk juggling his domestic agenda and his EU priorities while leading his Civic Platform (PO) party's re-election campaign.

Tusk's centrist PO soundly defeated its closest challenger, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party by nearly 40 percent of the vote, making his the first government to receive a second term since the fall of communism.

At the EU, Tusk's task was much more complex than in Warsaw. In Brussels, his country held the presidency during what is considered the biggest crisis in EU history as member states have been struggling to avoid being swallowed up by the sovereign debt contagion sweeping the Continent while the euro has remained on life support.

In the middle of the storm, Poland, while unable to pursue much of its planned agenda because of the eurozone crisis, managed to draw rave reviews for its stewardship during such a difficult era in the EU's history.

"Poland demonstrated extraordinary capacity during probably the most difficult period since European integration started," European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said on the final day of Poland's presidency.

Another important event in 2011 was the soothing of tensions between Poland and the United States after a visit to Warsaw by U.S. President Barack Obama. Relations between the two countries had chilled after Obama's decision to scrap a missile-defense agreement that former President George W. Bush negotiated with Poland. While the Obama administration denied such claims, critics decried the reversal as a casualty of Obama's desire to "reset" relations with Russia, which adamantly opposed the missile plan. Relations grew further strained after Obama canceled a trip to the funeral of former Polish President Lech Kaczyński because of poor flying conditions caused by the eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull.

But Obama's visit served as an olive branch as he held high-profile meetings with both Tusk and President Bronisław Komorowski, and also took part in a Central European summit attended by other regional leaders.

Slovakia and the euro

The only Visegrad 4 country to have adopted the euro, Slovakia found itself in the eye of the euro crisis storm. In October, the Freedom and Solidarity (SAS) party - a junior member of the center-right governing coalition - prevented Parliament from passing the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), despite Prime Minister Iveta Radičová's strong lobby for its passage. All of the 17 eurozone member states were required to pass the measure, which would increase the size and powers of the 590 billion euro EFSF as part of a bailout. SAS abstained from the vote, which did not give the pro-Europe Radičová enough votes to pass the measure.

Meanwhile, much of Europe began making pleas to Slovakia to approve the expansion. Slovakia all of a sudden was thrust on to the front pages as leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the EU's Barroso all called on the government to reconsider its position. But SAS insisted it was unfair for Slovakia, the second-poorest nation in the eurozone, to be asked to bail out much larger economies such as Spain and Italy.

The measure eventually was voted on again and passed with the support of opposition leader Robert Fico (Smer) who agreed to support the issue in a new vote, but only if new elections were held. Radičová had staked her position to the original vote, attaching a confidence vote to the measure, and once the expansion passed on its second vote, she was out. New elections are set for March and she is remaining in office until the new government is chosen. Smer's maneuver was largely viewed as a power play worked to perfection as Fico, a former prime minister, was angling to return to government.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com