Regionalization and the Visegrad Four: are the material conditions available?

In recent years, talk of deglobalization and regionalization has intensified. Some argue that economic integration may increasingly take place at the regional rather than global level. Within the European Union, the Visegrad Four ( V4: Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary) are often mentioned as a potential regional core.

Politically, the four countries share history, geographic proximity, and at times coordinated policy positions. But political alignment is one thing. Economic interdependence is another.

If regionalization is to be more than rhetoric, it must rest on measurable material foundations.

Measuring material interconnectedness

To assess how economically intertwined the V4 economies are, we examined 2023 data on value added generated by V4-controlled enterprises within each country.*

Value added represents the net contribution firms make to an economy and is the core component of GDP. In fact, GDP is essentially the sum of value added across all firms and industries. Therefore, with value added we are essentially measuring their direct contribution to the host country’s GDP.

This allows us to evaluate real economic embeddedness not just trade flows or symbolic cooperation.

In absolute terms Czechia stands out

Which country adds the most value in each economy?

Host country	No. 1 (mEUR)	No.2 (mEUR)	No.3 (mEUR)
Poland	Czechia 862	Hungary 372	Slovakia 109
Czechia	Poland  2044	Slovakia 1864	Hungary 1027
Hungary	Czechia 875	Poland 223	Slovakia 212
Slovakia	Czechia 3747	Hungary 1370	Poland 206

Source: Eurostat

The results are absolute, but they clearly show that Czechia stand out the most. Czech-controlled enterprises are the biggest V4 value‑added contributor in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. This makes the country the most embedded regionally.

In relative terms no one stands out

Absolute numbers tell us who is strongest within the V4. But to understand interdependence, we must look at relative shares.

How much of each country’s total value added and therefore GDP comes from V4-controlled firms?

The results are striking:

Source: Eurostat (own calculation)

Poland, the largest economy, is barely dependent on intra-V4 value added. For Hungary and Czechia, the contribution is around one to two percent.

Slovakia stands out: nearly 8% of its total economy value added comes from V4-controlled foreign enterprises, driven overwhelmingly by Czech-controlled firms (5.63%) of Slovakia's total economy alone).

Without Slovakia, the average contribution of V4 countries in value-added hovers around one percent (1.36%) but even with Slovakia it only extend to 3.02%.

Conclusion

The data suggest that while there is some regional capital presence, the V4 economies are not deeply structurally interdependent.

Compared to their total economies, V4-origin firms account for only marginal shares of GDP in most cases.

This matters because:

• Political cooperation may exist without deep economic integration

• But durable regionalization typically requires significant material interdependence

• In the V4 case, economic embeddedness remains limited

  
  

The Visegrad Four may have room for political coordination. But from a material (production-based) perspective, they are not strongly connected.

Regional identity exists. Structural economic interdependence largely does not.

*Disclaimer: This analysis is by no means extensive. It does not account for other important dimensions of interdependence, such as trade flows, supply-chain linkages, or financial exposure.

Nevertheless, given the relatively small share of intra-V4 value added in most cases, ownership-based economic embeddedness among the four countries appears limited. From a structural perspective, the degree of mutual dependence appears modest at best.