Visegrád Battlegroup


The Visegrád Battlegroup or V4 EU Battlegroup is an EU Battlegroup led by Poland, in which the other fellow Visegrád Group countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary participate. It was on standby from 1 January until 30 June 2016 and is scheduled to go on standby from 1 July until 31 December 2019 and in the first half of 2023.

History

On 12 May 2011, Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said that Poland will lead a new EU Battlegroup of the Visegrád Group. The decision was made at the V4 defence ministers' meeting in Levoča, Slovakia, and the battlegroup became operational and was placed on standby in the first half of 2016. The ministers also agreed that the V4 militaries should hold regular exercises under the auspices of the NATO Response Force, with the first such exercise to be held in Poland in 2013. The battlegroup included the members of V4 and Ukraine.
On 14 March 2014, a pact was signed on a joint military body within the European Union, in response to the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. The deal involves joint military exercises, coordinated defence procurement and joint defence development of the four central European countries. In the Bratislava Declaration of 9 December 2014, the V4 stated that, considering "Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine V4 countries will coordinate their national positions to maximise the efforts to support Ukraine", confirming Ukraine's participation in the Visegrád Battlegroup in the first half of 2016. On Polish suggestion, the V4 agreed "to form another V4 EU Battlegroup in the second semester of 2019". The V4 are considering to keep the Battlegroup as a permanent unit after 2016, which would set a precedent. The Battlegroup is deemed the 'flagship' of intensified future "systemic and systematic defence planning, exercises and perhaps even procurement and maintenance" amongst the V4.
In November 2018 was confirmed that the V4 Battlegroup will be reinforced by Croatia in 2019.

Composition and equipment

The Battlegroup in 2016 consisted of around 3,700 troops:
Poland1 870main manoeuvre combat forces
Czech Republic728logisticians, helicopter unit, electronic combat team, medical unit
Hungary640combat engineers, civil-military cooperation unit
Slovakia460unit for protection against weapons of mass destruction
Ukraine19