Hungary must resist the temptation to use its stint as EU president to promote national interests, the head of the EU representation in Hungary told a conference in Koszeg, western Hungary, on Thursday.
Whereas Hungary’s presidency in the first half of 2011 would inevitably yield the country long-term benefits, it concentrate on working closely with a restructured European Council as well as with the European Parliament and the European Commission to promote the bloc’s broader goals, Tamas Szucs told regional NGOs.
Henrietta Toth of the Central European Club Pannonia Association of 12 civil groups that they had mounted a public campaigning, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, to promote key issues such as equal opportunities, employment, welfare, sustainable development, climate change and relations with neighbouring countries.
Based on the results the association is putting together a set of proposals to help the work of Hungary as EU president, she said.
Why not? Every other country has…
“Central European Club Pannonia Association ”
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I had to read this twice because the first time I thought it said “Central European Club Paranoia Association”. Maybe this is a sign. Has anyone seen ‘District 9′? Maybe soon I’ll take on the name of an Australian super-model, a redneck bar from a movie, or just go for some non-sensical acronym. Somebody save me.
The key to using the EU presidency well is too promote your national interests, but in a way that others feel it also benefits them. So banging on about how the Romanians or Slovaks are nasty to Hungarians gets you nowhere.
However, promoting a regional CEE/SEE group within the EU to increase infrastructure integration, fight corruption, increase trade and population movement between the national/cultural/ethnic groups on both sides of the border, cross-cultural/ethnic education and work opportunites would serve Hungary well. It would be able to highlight problems in the neighbouring countries (and vice versa of course), but done under the heading of ‘constructive criticism’ rather than just moaning and slagging each other off.
However, I’ve come to realise that since the late 90′s (when Hungary & the EU started getting serious about joining up) Hungary has had the misfortune to have some of the worst, most ineffective, lazy, stubborn and non-communicative MEPs, EU commissioners, PMs and Presidents in the EU. So I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for a miracle, rather I’ll just sit back and wait for as big a political fiasco as Pecs, European City of Culture 2010 has been so far.