Why the celebration?

While the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome approaches, the need to form a judgement about Europe is being felt in everyone. But how it is possible to evaluate so complex a reality? If we listen to people on the street, we will hear them lamenting the demise of the old currency or abusing the legislative system, but people’s daily problems are perhaps not the best point of departure. Few, however, feel the need to express a complex judgement that is not only critical, without simplifications and also placed in its proper historical context. To understand the sense of commemorations there is a need to examine matters in depth. In this perspective, the incontestable historical merits of the European Union seem obvious. The idea of a ‘European union’ was born precisely because people came to understand that it was the essential premise for the peaceful coexistence of the continent and, at the same time, the condition for its reconstruction and its economic development between the two superpowers. European cooperation was and remains an effective structure for articulating the interest of the European nations. So, in this sense, Europe indeed deserves to be commemorated, in spite of its ambiguities. “For 50 years with Europe” is the slogan of the celebration of the anniversary in the West, but if we turn our gaze eastwards, to Central Europe and the Baltic we see a group of countries with an unfortunate history that, despite the fact that they are now in the Union, cannot celebrate the anniversary in the same way, or for the same reasons. I, a young Hungarian, ask myself what the new members of the Eu have to celebrate in this anniversary year. What does the European Union mean for them? What does it mean for Hungary? Many people don’t realise it, but in my view, Hungary’s Eu accession in 2004 is the greatest and surely the most self-evident social and economic success that my country has had over these last 17 years, ever since the country was finally liberated from Soviet domination. Hungarian society is now free to make its own choices. I don’t believe I am exaggerating by saying so. The European Union was a real goal to be attained, and its importance consists in the fact that it provided a direction to the candidate countries. This direction ought not to be underestimated. Those who think that the transformation of the system is obvious and that it has as inevitable result the rapprochement with the Western model are mistaken. It’s enough to consider the situation of the majority of the Balkan countries or Ukraine, where the internal forces failed to achieve consensus on the question of Europe, and the transformation was unable to be completed, thus perpetuating a corrupt and undemocratic system. In Hungary, on the other hand, in spite of the heated political debates on the transformation itself, European consensus has never been lacking. Europe needs to be thanked, because it helped our society to concentrate its forces on social and economic questions indispensable for remaining on the road towards the West. If we ask ourselves what Hungary has to celebrate about the European Union, the answer is simple, even if not sufficiently familiar. Europe for us is a series of successes, reforms and development. The Union is an important choice for us, and we join with the countries of the West to commemorate this successful cooperation, which has given so much to us too.