When speaking about Central Europe, people usually refer to the Habsburg Empire, the glorious age of the Austrian-Hungarian state: a multiethnic Europe in miniature, without internal borders and possessing a kind of intellectual Commonwealth, where Central Europe represented a cohesive political unit on the European scene.

Central Europe consists of many states, but due to the majority of people that live there, its original core is the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Under the rule of the Communist regime, the definition of Central Europe was rather neglected and, for the large part, substituted by the Soviet-created "Eastern Europe". Then everything came at once: the fall of Berlin wall, politicians giving speeches about Central Europe, George Soros founding the Central European University, the appearance of newspapers and magazines titled "Central Europe" or "Central European review" and finally there was a call for the establishment of Central Europe as a political unit.

One can trace the movement towards a new identity in Central Europe within the field of economic and cultural cooperation, most notably within the framework of the so-called Visegrad Group (V4), formed in 1991, and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), signed in 1992. Visegrad and CEFTA are purely Central European bodies, with the intention of uniting the former East bloc countries during economic transition. Having joined NATO in 1997, the V4 countries are now on their way to becoming members of the EU in 2004.

The Visegrad group initiative later gave birth to various cultural and marketing activities between its members. National authorities and organizations from the Central European region, represented by the Visegrad group, engage in cooperation of their own in the field of research, education, business as well as tourism. One of our joint activities, aimed to promote the Central European region in overseas markets, is known as the European Quartet.