ABSTRACT
This chapter will look in more detail at the European Union’s pre-accession strategy for the central and east European countries (CEECs). In particular, it will examine how the Visegrad Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have responded to the need for more effective and efficient policy formulation and implementation that the pre-accession strategy triggered. Analysis will focus on the bodies liaising between the EU and each of the four states, and will assess the efficacy of the different internal arrangements adopted. The government structures within the Visegrad Four (V4) are of considerable importance: they were designed to streamline the procedures for making and implementing decisions on European policy, but they also represent in an embryonic form the structures that will remain in place after accession to the Union.
