As part of its European conferences, the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe had the pleasure of welcoming on 16 November 2012 Dorigny Péter Balázs, Professor at the University of Central Europe in Budapest, where he has held an ad personam Jean Monnet Chair since 2005.
In introducing the speaker, José Maria Gil-Robles, President of the Foundation, rightly pointed out, in addition to his academic expertise, the insights that his practical experience in diplomacy and the European arena also brings. In particular, he will become Hungary’s permanent representative to the European Union at a crucial time in Hungary’s accession negotiations with the European Union. He will also represent him at the European Convention, which will draw up a draft European constitution. He will be a member of the European Commission in 2004 and Foreign Minister of Hungary in 2009-2010.
On the theme of Advocacy for Europe, Professor Balázs introduced his presentation by recalling the European Union’s mark of success, which is the number of States that have joined on a voluntary basis and have agreed to share the exercise of their sovereignty, reaching the figure of 28 members with Croatia’s expected accession in 2013.
On the other hand, it notes a gap between certain stated ambitions and the slowness or modesty of concrete achievements. In this respect, he refers to the Lisbon Strategy, which aimed, by 2010, to become “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”; or the failure of the draft European Constitution, which was to reform the Union in view of future enlargements, and which was adopted in the Lisbon Treaty five years after the Union’s major enlargement.
Péter Balázs then reported on the initiatives already taken and underway to respond to the economic and financial crisis facing the European Union. These include the report of 26 June 2012 by the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, entitled “Towards a genuine economic and monetary union”, and the concrete proposals made by the Reflection Group on the future of the European Union composed of eleven foreign ministers (including those representing the six founding Member States).
Against this backdrop, the perspective of an “integrated budget framework”, an “integrated economic policy framework” and an “integrated financial framework”, in other words a banking and budgetary union, is emerging. There is also a reform of the functioning of the Union, a strengthening of the European External Action Service and, in the long term, a new revision of the European Treaties, possibly leading to a new European Convention.
The second part of Péter Balázs’ presentation returns to the dynamics of the enlargement of the European Union by addressing the close and more distant prospects for accession that concern those of the 44 European countries (not including micro-States) that do not belong to the European Union. He reminds us in passing that he has set up and runs, within the University of Budapest, a centre for the study of the enlargement of the European Union, probably the only one in the world devoted to this subject.
The second part of Péter Balázs’ presentation returns to the dynamics of the enlargement of the European Union by addressing the close and more distant prospects for accession that concern those of the 44 European countries (not including micro-States) that do not belong to the European Union. He reminds us in passing that he has set up and runs, within the University of Budapest, a centre for the study of the enlargement of the European Union, probably the only one in the world devoted to this subject.
Péter Balázs underlines the attractive, but not exclusive, pole that the European Union constitutes following the disintegration of the USSR, then Yugoslavia. A map of Europe projected on a large screen supports its geopolitical considerations: here the countries under Russian influence, the torn Ukraine, there the countries under Turkish influence. He also points out an unwritten rule: enlargements are always carried out with countries bordering on Member States already in force.
Future enlargements are another factor, in addition to the current financial crisis, that justify institutional reforms (composition and presidency of the European Commission, chairing the various configurations of the Council of Ministers, etc.), including those proposed by the eleven foreign ministers. And to conclude that the old political machinery is creaking more and more: like a car, a general overhaul is inevitable.
During the questions asked by the public, other subjects were discussed, such as Hungary’s political positioning in relation to the European Union, or the concept of a two-speed Europe. On this point, Péter Balázs recalls the previous
