Category: Current

The outstanding strategic significance of Central Europe in Hungarian foreign policy is quite frequently discussed nowadays apropos of the Hungarian presidency of the Visegrád Group (V4), which commenced as of 1 July. One of the often-emphasized goals of Hungarian foreign policy is the creation of a Central European economic area,

Divergent Paths and the Sustainability of Representative Democracy in the EU As recently as a decade ago, Hungary and Ireland shared a broadly similar cultural domain. Both were (and are) small, open economies. Both had a predominantly Catholic culture, shaped by engagement with Europe extending back more than a millennium.

It was seventy years ago that the Schuman Declaration launched European integration, widely regarded as the most successful process in European history. At the same time, the story of integration was accompanied by challenges, dilemmas, and crises, which invariably necessitated reform. The basic challenges remain with us today. Examples include

America is often said to have taken a ‘holiday from history’ between the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the jihadist attacks on two symbols of American power—New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington—on 11 September 2001. President Clinton, who was the most powerful man

“No less importantly, our next-door neighbours—Slovaks, Ukrainians, Romanians, Serbians, Croatians, Slovenes, and Austrians—have shared a common fate with us here in the Central European region for a thousand years, even if Trianon made our experience of coexistence fraught with bitterness for a long time.” From the perspective of present-day Hungary,

“… the Union has no other choice and it does not have any future unless it includes and cherishes the various histories, traditions, and identities of Europe’s constituent nations. Brexit shall stand as a reminder to all of us that ignoring such claims leads nowhere.” INTRODUCTION Europe is our cradle,