1. Hungary joined the European Union twenty years ago during the fifth and largest enlargement of the EU.
After the regime change, Hungary’s accession to the European Union became a politically and socially consensual goal. Hungary has also done much to join the EU together with the Visegrad countries, as the accession of this region was also important from a regional point of view, also intending to gradually unify Europe, which had previously been divided by the Iron Curtain. The success of accession is a historic achievement for Hungary.
2. Hungary’s accession to the EU is an important achievement for which there is no alternative today.
Twenty years on, membership in the EU has brought results that are significant not just in economic terms. Hungarian citizens are free to work in any Member State, but they are also free to study and travel throughout the EU. Living standards have improved, the country has joined one of the world’s largest single markets, and cohesion policy instruments have helped to bring about several regional and cross-border developments.
3. The EU is facing very different challenges today than it did twenty years ago, without a long-term strategy for its geopolitical weight.
The EU has not become a great power in the geopolitical sense, nor has it made much progress in recent years towards becoming a great power in the geopolitical sense. A lot of ideas have been put forward in recent decades, but basically, the EU has had two major options: an autonomous and geopolitically strong EU; or an EU that relies mostly on transatlantic cooperation. The current war conflicts are also deepening this kind of identity crisis in the EU: whereas the US used to express concern about the EU’s strategic autonomy, it is now more the lack of it that the US is criticizing. There is no adequate response to this search for identity, either in the form of a concrete strategy or a longer-term vision.
4. The EU is also steadily losing competitiveness while emerging economies are catching up.
Europe has been a major player in the world economy for centuries, a place where discoveries were made and industrial, technological, and economic processes were developed that later had a major impact on the rest of the world. Although this kind of development stalled, especially after the Second World War, a gradually unifying Europe was able to regain its role as an economic powerhouse. The EU area became a model of development-centered growth. This was further enhanced by the introduction of the euro, which unlocked new competitiveness potential. At the same time, the EU’s role in the world economy has been gradually declining in recent years. The EU’s competitiveness vis-à-vis emerging economies such as China, Brazil, and India has been steadily declining, as these countries have a much more favorable investment climate. Similarly, the EU is lagging behind in technological innovation. Internal causes include the problems caused by an aging population, over-regulation, inadequate support systems, and the continuing relegation of development and innovation to the background.
5. In response to these challenges, Hungary supports the concept of a strong Europe of nations, rather than a United States of Europe.
Twenty years ago, Hungary did not join the EU to give up its sovereignty, but quite the opposite. The aim was that by joining, it would become part of a strong and stable European Union of sovereign nation-states, where individual Member States could achieve their goals more effectively together than if they tried to do so separately. The vacuum created by the loss of geopolitical weight is to some extent filled by the conflict between those who favor deeper unification and integration and those who defend national sovereignty. Hungary, as a committed EU member state and as the next President-in-Office of the EU Council, wants to make changes in these areas and is expected to take important steps for a European Union of strong nations and to increase the EU’s competitiveness.
Written by Péter Stepper