gergokocsis

2012-06-30T07:53:00.001+02:00

http://omsairamcomputers.com/trifr.html

2012-06-28T14:26:00.001+02:00

http://crea-mago.com/tukvzg.html

2012-06-26T22:52:00.001+02:00

http://net-service.w.ezic.info/iekry.html

www.gergokocsis.com

2012-04-05T18:16:00.000+02:00

This blog has moved to my new site: www.gergokocsis.com

On my knew site you can follow my blog and about me.

la Journée internationale de la femme

2012-03-09T15:24:00.003+01:00

Célébrée depuis 1975 (officialisée par les Nations Unies en 1977) le 8 mars, la Journée internationale de la femme, est placée cette année sous le thème de « l’autonomisation des femmes rurales et leur rôle dans l’éradication de la pauvreté et de la faim, le développement et les défis actuels ». Il s’agit de rappeler que l’inégalité entre les sexes et l’accès limité au crédit, aux soins de santé e...t à l’éducation posent un certain nombre de problèmes aux femmes rurales. Et la crise alimentaire et économique mondiale, de même que les changements climatiques n’ont fait qu’aggraver leur situation. On estime par exemple que 60% des personnes victimes de famine chronique sont des femmes et des filles.

Et pourtant, en contribuant de manière déterminante aux économies mondiales, les femmes rurales jouent un rôle crucial dans les nations développées comme en développement : elles renforcent le développement agricole et rural, améliorent la sécurité alimentaire et peuvent aider à réduire les niveaux de pauvreté au sein de leurs communautés. Dans certaines parties du monde, les femmes constituent 70% de la main-d’œuvre agricole, comptant pour 43% des travailleurs agricoles de par le monde.
Les estimations de la FAO (Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture) montrent que si les femmes bénéficiaient du même accès aux ressources productives que les hommes, elles pourraient augmenter les récoltes de leurs exploitations agricoles de 20 à 30%, permettant de sortir de la famine de 100 à 150 millions de personnes.
http://on.unesco.org/yqFfJa

Putin again

2012-03-07T11:16:00.002+01:00

Putin won the elections on the 4th of March. He has now become the president of the Russain Federation for a third time. He won with a large majority. He will be the president for six years to come.

Some say this is the beginning of the end of the Putin era. Truly there might be signs of a new poltical force on the rising, but let us not forget that these forces are weak and as I am aware mainly only in existence in the major urban areas of Russia. For now I am most certain that Putin has not much to fear.

It also goes without saying that he has seen the Arab spring and perhaps learnt from it. I know of course that Russia is not a totally undemocratic state, but it does have democratic deficits. The president in Russia has very strong constitutional competences some them shared with the Federal Assembly, but out of the two houses of the assembly only the State Duma is elected directly.

We have six exciting years ahead of us to talk about Putin's role in Russia and on the world stage. For us Europeans Russia is a key partner because we are srtongly dependent on eahc other economically especially within the energy sector. Once again the question might rise is economic and political stability more important than the democratic, political values and views on human rights?

Airlines, airports, trains and buses

2012-02-13T17:17:00.001+01:00

Barely has a week passed since the Hungarian national airline Malév went bankrupt. This inspired me to do some thinking on one of my favourite issues transportation. It is a field of industry that is very interesting to me because it has to face extreme challenges in the future and also because it is one of tje government owned industries in Hungary that has been needing financial support for many years now working with old inefficient structures.
It is my solid belief that good organisation is key to all fields of economic activities. This is especially true with something as complex as transportation. In my view the different means of transportation can be seen as different levels of a complex system.
Air transportation is used for international movement in Hungary due to the country's size. This means that the country has one principal airport in Budapest. This is not very healthy situation in terms of regional development, but the example of Malév shows that this is probably realistic. Despite this as a believer in the development of new Central European business hubs I think Hungary and more expressively the bigger countryside cities of Hungary should collaborate with working regional airports of the neighbouring countries.
In an ideal setting the railways would also be focused on these cities with real intercity trains only stopping in cities of economic significance, while slower passenger trains could collect all passengers from other station transportimg them to the hubs. Finally the bus transport system should do the same on an even lower level reaching all villages and settlements. Thus a complex net of transportation could be created between the regional economic hubs.

Hungarian plan for national growth

2011-12-06T00:35:00.001+01:00

I posted a list of cities from Central Europe with a population of more than a hundred thousand. In the back of my mind while compiling the list I was thinking of their Western European and well even North American counter parts and how several cities can work as metropolitan areas, which are more viable as centers of economic regions cooperating and sharing tasks in order to create functional globally important regions. Today in Central Europe there is a lack in this, truly we can state that Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, Katowice and probably one of the few real cooperations the Centrope region Vienna-Brünn-Bratislava-Győr work as a true globally important economic region.

Map of Western European industrial belt and its Central European counterpart.

Yesterday I read the new Hungarian propasal for national growth, which is more of an analysis than a true plan and despite many of its valuable thoughts carrying it is not so easy without detailed road maps leading to the goals defined in the plan by 2015. The most valuable part of the plan is the one with a detailed discription of the cities of Hungary putting them into a hierarchical order according to their economic and governmental status. The report or analysis (I must stress the fact that it is called a plan, but truly it can not be defined as one for it only sets out some vague goals and determines even more vaguely what there is to be done to achieve those goals) also contains maps and discriptions recording the geographical distribution of the top 200 businesses in Hungary, the top 200 developing businesses as well as geographical distribution by economic fileds.

Building on this in the plan there is also are very valuable part where it mentions and briefly describes the creation of an economic area in the Carpathian Basin. The main idea being that cross-border business hubs should be created and supported in order to boost the Hungarian economy and of course that of the whole region. Especially mentioned are:
- the Centrope: Vienna-Bratislava-Győr triangle, which I might add also should and naturally does contain Brno and is a true ractangle and probably the only already functional cross-border are with a strong auto industry.
- the Szeged-Timisoara region is also mentioned, which would and could also include Subotica (city in Serbia with almost 100.000 inhabitants barely didn't make my list) and Arad.
- the Debrecen-Oradea region, the two cities being very close to each other on two sides of the Hungarian Romanian border.
- the Szombathely-Zalaegerszeg-Graz region, which can be also seen as a southern extension to the Centrope region since the most important here is also the auto industry and mechatronics.
- the Miskolc-Koisce region in Northern Hungary and Eastern Slovakia, respectively the two cities are very close together in fact part of Kosice's agglomeration has reached the Hungarian border. The two cities are traditional industrial centers in both countries.
- last, but not least the Pécs-Osijek region, which is the only region mentioned here where one of the poles of the region is not in the EU, but with Croatia joining the EU in 2013 new cooperation and better opportunities could arise here as well.

Map of possible cross-border hubs.

Merkozy

2011-12-02T21:51:00.001+01:00

Merkozy is the new nickname given to Angela Merkel the Chancellor of the German Federal Republic and to Nicholas Sarkozy the President of the French Republic following the path of Brangelina and TomKat... It is of course a journalistic tool of cynically expressing that the duo formed by the leaders of the largest economies of the Eurozone are the ones dominating the talks on the euro crisis and who are practically dominating also the EU politics as a whole.

Of course everyone is waiting for the results of next weeks European Council meeting and looking forward to what solutions the two leaders will come up with. Today in a speech in the Bundestag Merkel shared some of her thoughts including an opposition to Eurobonds, the preferance of treaty modification over a new treaty within the Eurozone and that she believes the automatic mechanism of sanctioning states would be the best solution done by European institutions. She highlighted that it is important not to create a further gap between Eurozone and non-Euro EU Member States. Which is not only a good news for the UK, but also for states of the Euro Plus Pact and other states that may later wish to introduce the euro as a currency such as Hungary for example. She also addressed claims of a German dominated Europe saying that their actions are not to dominate, but in the spirit of Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. She will discuss her plans with Sarkozy on Monday in Paris.

Also today David Cameron talked about his meeting with Nicholas Sarkozy stating he doesn't believe a treaty change is needed and if it will go through he will try to make sure that UK interests are taken into account. Well I do not believe that if a new treaty is created within the Eurozone that the UK diplomacy can do much. It is of course a possibility if there is a treaty change for the UK to try to block it, but I think that the UK's approach to the talks so far were very distant due naturally to the fact that it has stayed away from the euro.

EU ambassadors listen to HvR

2011-11-30T23:17:00.001+01:00

http://consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/126426.pdf this is a link to the speech Herman van Rompuy gave to the conference of heads of delegations of the EU delegations. It is a very interesting speech and one that defines important aspects of European foreign policy.

Still I would like to share my view that on an general basis it is the EU's best tool (or weapon) what the President of the European Council refers back to time to time the economic power that the EU represents being the world's largest economy. He mentioned this in connection with Russia and the Eastern policy of the Union as well as in connection with the shift to the Pacific area. More interestingly when speaking of the BRICS he mentioned that it would be important to engage these countries in other global issues. In connection to that and to the economic power being the strongest tool in the hands of the EU I believe that the EU should in fact start showing a lead on the international scene in public diplomacy (that is also in front of tv cameras) in certain issues. We know for a fact that some EU Member States are leaders in issues such as climate change (mentioned by HvR) so probably as a stronghold the common foreign policy of the EU should be agressive enough to label global issues as European initiatives, which is of course a step necessary for the EU to be seen as a strong actor and not as an actor whose currency might fall apart and whose direction towards coherence can be questionable.

I have seen a very good exampl of this and a very natural one in UNESCO where the EU and its Member States play a very important and active role. Here the EU is the only non-state party to the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions this is a great example of a European issue which can be strongly expressed on a global international level. I think more of this is needed for international actors and simply for the global view to change on the EU from a large economy to a real actor. The job has begun and I must agree with HvR that the work in the past two years has been enorm and the development is significant despite or thanks to major global happenings forming the foreign policy agenda (economic crisis, Arab spring, natural disasters).

EU-US Summit

2011-11-28T20:39:00.001+01:00

An EU-US Summit took place in Washington D.C., leaders of the world's largest economy (EU) and second largest (USA) namely Barack Obama President of the USA, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repsented the USA and the EU was repesented by Herman van Rompuy President of the European Council, José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission and High Representative Catherine Ashton. They touched upon a wide range of topics from economics to climate change and even Tymoshenko's trial in the Ukraine. It is very obvious from the joint statement that they did not have desire to comment upon Palestine jointly, which is probably the only major global political issue not mentioned in the joint statement. Then again we know that the Member States of the EU cannot agree among themselves on the subject, which is probably the resonin behind it. It is also very interesting that the parties praise themselves as the largest aid donors when also in connection to Palestine the USA cut funding from UNESCO.

Here are some links on the Summit:

This is a link to the joint EU-US statement after the EU-US Summit in Washington D.C.:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/er/126390.pdf

About the agenda of EU-US Summits:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/er/126281.pdf

Finally an interview with EU ambassador to the USA before the summit:

Central European City List

2011-11-24T10:48:00.001+01:00

This is a list of cities in Central Europe that have a population of more than a hundred thousand. On the list I included all cities meeting the population limit from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia additionaly I have included cities from Romania, Serbia and the Ukraine that are in territories that are sometimes considered Central Europe (Banat, Galicia, Transcarpathia, Transylvania and Voivodina). I have not included cities from Austria and Germany simply for the sake of simplicity, it would have been impossible for me to draw the western borders of Central Europe, so maybe another time.

City	Country	Population
Budapest	Hungary	1 721 556
Warsaw	Poland	1 706 624
Prague	Czech Republic	1 300 995
Zagreb	Croatia	792 875
Kraków	Poland	756 583
Łódź	Poland	753 192
Lviv	Ukraine	732 818
Wrocław	Poland	632 930
Poznań	Poland	567 932
Gdańsk	Poland	458 717
Brno	Czech Republic	454 337
Bratislava	Slovakia	431 061
Szczecin	Poland	410 811
Bydgoszcz	Poland	361 222
Lublin	Poland	351 806
Cluj-Napoca	Romania	317 953
Timisoara	Romania	317 660
Katowice	Poland	317 220
Ostrava	Czech Republic	314 590
Białystok	Poland	294 143
Brasov	Romania	284 596
Gdynia	Poland	250 242
Ljubjana	Slovenia	248 836
Częstochowa	Poland	242 300
Chernivtsi	Ukraine	240 621
Kosice	Slovakia	234 596
Radom	Poland	224 857
Sosnowiec	Poland	222 586
Novi Sad	Serbia	221 854
Ivano-Frankivsk	Ukraine	218 359
Debrecen	Hungary	207 270
Toruń	Poland	206 619
Oradea	Romania	206 614
Kielce	Poland	205 902
Gliwice	Poland	197 393
Zabrze	Poland	189 062
Bytom	Poland	184 765
Split	Croatia	178 192
Plzen	Czech Republic	177 936
Olsztyn	Poland	175 710
Bielsko-Biała	Poland	175 690
Arad	Romania	172 824
Szeged	Hungary	169 731
Miskolc	Hungary	169 226
Rzeszów	Poland	166 454
Maribor	Slovenia	157 938
Pécs	Hungary	157 680
Sibiu	Romania	154 892
Targu Mures	Romania	149 577
Ruda Śląska	Poland	144 584
Rybnik	Poland	141 080
Baia Mare	Romania	137 976
Győr	Hungary	130 478
Tychy	Poland	129 776
Dąbrowa Górnicza	Poland	128 795
Rijeka	Croatia	128 735
Płock	Poland	126 968
Opole	Poland	126 748
Elbląg	Poland	126 710
Gorzów Wielkopolski	Poland	125 411
Wałbrzych	Poland	123 635
Włocławek	Poland	118 432
Nyíregyháza	Hungary	117 832
Zielona Góra	Poland	117 523
Uzhhorod	Ukraine	117 317
Tarnów	Poland	116 118
Satu Mare	Romania	115 630
Chorzów	Poland	113 678
Kecskemét	Hungary	112 233
Kalisz	Poland	108 031
Osijek	Croatia	107 784
Koszalin	Poland	107 376
Liberec	Czech Republic	105 229
Legnica	Poland	104 754
Olomouc	Czech Republic	102 134
Székesfehérvár	Hungary	101 973
Ústí nad Labem	Czech Republic	100 884
Hradec Králové	Czech Republic	100 090

Superclass

2011-11-22T19:04:00.001+01:00

This is a video of David Rothkopf speaking about his book written about a group of power elite in the world, whom he calls the Superclass. I was inspired by the 2008 book of Paolo Coelho The Winner Stands Alone, which I have recently read to post this video. The Superclass is the phenomenon that is focused on and described in this book with an interesting plot of course.

Both the video and the book get us thinking of the Superclass, its members, the mixture of people in this class, equality of gender, political and economic views and geographical distribution. I must say that I do not question the existing of a new global elite, but I would really be curious about the whole list and wether it contains anyone from Central Europe.

New Europeanism

2011-11-13T12:24:00.001+01:00

This week and also last week in my head the main topic in Europe wa truly the future of the EU and that of the continent. Now that the Greek and the Italian prime ministers are gone and that the austerity measures have been accepted in those countries Germany and possibly France (but mainly Germany) won in terms of economic policy decisions. All that has happened was influenced mostly by Merkel's policy and that of the Frankfurt Group. So let us say there is some stabilization now or not.

In my view the crisis is much much deeper and as Merkel said it could take a decade to sort things out, but I think it also requires extensive change. I am not sure that a Guy Verhofstadt type of federal Europe is what we are reaching in for. In my last post I said that the EU was practically a federation and in many aspects this is true. Of course two very important factors are excluded the military factor and the the foreign policy factor.

I think that the EU must be responsible for the young generation. I am not sure that our generation (under 30) those, who I call 'New Europeans' like the EU, or in fact supports its policies, but I think that is because in our adulthood the EU has been in constant crisis. Despite the general political thoughts of this generation it is important to take into account that it is a generation that socialized with the internet around, with Schengen in place and the Euro as a currency. You can't leave these thoughts out of site. The Western Europeans haven't experienced a life without Schengen and those of us from the 2004 enlargement don't know what its like to wait for a passport or simply to live behind the iron curtain.

Lisbon might have solved technical difficulties in the working mechanisms of a large organization, but is it not time in this deep crisis to start thinking of a way forward that also includes the citizens, the youth the 'New Europeans'. I am sure that the steps taken by the Frankfurt Group were necessary and they help now, but it might just be that a small group of people determining not only fiscal policies of Member States, but also the fate of governments is exactly what most citizens find offending and hateful about EU.

New steps 'New Europeanism' is what we need. Let us have then a European government (not that the Commission is not a cabinet practically). If Merkel and Sarkozy now what they want with the EU with other Member States then they should campaign at the next EP elections, gain votes for their parties and be nominated for the post of the head of the Commission. I urge them to do so! Let us then play clearly not with informal Frankfurt Groups, but with real leadership. Use Lisbon! Or be brave enough and convince your nation that the EU Constitution is needed and ratify it! I call for 'New Europeanism'! For the sake of the 'New European' generation!

Two-tier EU nightmares?

2011-11-11T08:38:00.001+01:00

The week when everyone is talking about a Eurozone and an EU that should stay united and the week when at the same time everyone is mentioning a two tier Europe.

In my view that is probably the worst of all cases. It is hard to adjust economic to political and social needs, but in my view in Europe the integration process must not fall apart and a two tier Eurozone would mean just that. When creating the Community there wwas a momentum after the Second World War with a rare opportunity in Europe to solidify peace and to build economies that can be once again on the top of the world. There was an economic success driving integration and it was this success that countries signed up for.

It is without no doubt that a new momentum arrived at the end of the eighties when the chance came to reunite Europe. Let us have no doubt that Germany as the strongest European economy always had a special power-broker role and that Maastricht and the creation of the European Union with the pillar system were consequences of German reunification and that those reforms were not only meant for the 12 then member states, but were already a preparation the enlargements of the mid-2000s.

Premature is a word I might use for the European Constitution a document that never entered into force. It is the end of the momentum right then and there. In my view it would have been a necessary step, but it was a mistake doing it when the enlargement was not yet done. I am of course aware of the fact that politicians and experts from candidate countries participated in the process, but it is on a social level on the level of people that it was not a correct process. I think EU citizens felt left out. Lisbon is no better, in fact it is worse because it does the changes necessary without having the guts of naming them. The High Representative is a foreign minister without calling her that or not and a regulation is a European Act without calling it that or not. I am writing about this reform process because when we talk of the current crisis of Europe we have to understand that this crisis the economic one just topped the political one.

The current crisis and a two tier Eurozone I believe is the worst and most dangerous thing that could happen. It is practically a matter of principle and now is one of the times that principles go before money because the Euro is the only true symbol of the European integration. It was the symbol of the economic strength of Europe and it must stay because without the Euro the EU is over, its minimal social backing will disappear.

Just a week ago George Soros said at CEU in Hungary that the Euro is here to stay and I couldn't agree more. It is now truly the question if the Euro that is here to stay will be the Euro that is the symbol of a new economic iron curtain or the true symbol of European federation of states, which the EU is wether you name it or "Lisbon" it.

Centrope

2011-11-09T11:33:00.000+01:00

Centrope is a Euroregion which involves four countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It is a business region, a cultural region and a region for scientific develepoment. The specialty of the region is that despite its size it includes four very important cities from the whole Central European region: Vienna, Bratislava, Brno and Győr.

With the twin capitals of Vienna and Bratislava only 60 km apart and Győr and Brno also nearby this region could truly be a well organized business center of the whole region. Their is also a touristic and cultural dimension, which extends much further to all four countries. Of course the cultural bond is very strong since all four countries share a common history belonging to one state for hundreds of years.

Even though the site http://www.mycentrope.com/ doesn't operate in english I suggest you pay a visit there I you speak Hungarian, Czech, Slovak or German.

US funding from UNESCO cut

2011-11-04T08:41:00.000+01:00

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova's statement on US funding cuts in this statement posted on the organization's website and youtube DG Irina Bokova (former Bulgarian ambassador to the organization) reacts to the United States policy on cutting funding from the organization for accepting Palestine as a member state of the organization.

Though I mostly blog about Central European issues the status of Palestine and its statehood is a global issue that I find important enough to be talking about. UNESCO's General Conference (presided over by Hungarian ambassador Katalin Bogyay) has accepted Palestine as a member state in a vote where this proposal recieved a two-thirds majority.

The USA has since in accordance with its own legislation decided to stop the funding of the organization. This decision is leading to halting many crucial programmes of the organization some described by the DG in the linked video. It also has the consequence that probably other member states will have to step up and provide more funding for the organization, which practically affects mostly the European countries and other developed countries since they are the donor countries that are already contributing to the budget of UNESCO. I do wish that US lawmakers will have an open mind and consider the global impact of their decisions.

United States of Europe: to be? not to be? how to be?

2011-10-26T01:59:00.000+02:00

I am no economist and I am most certainly not good with macroeconomical numbers of the debt crisis, but I feel that the crisis now in the EU and the Eurozone is by far not only about numbers.

Countries all over the world have felt the crisis and many countries not only those in Europe are in deep debt. Of course the true essence of the European crisis is that it is in the interest (or so it seems) of the Eurozone countries to bailout each other and to share the responsibility over the mistake of another. My question is simple is the solidarity among the peoples of Europe strong enough to back initiatives of such nature? To me it seems not... and it is definitely not the common Europeans fault. What we see is that the politicians the leaders of this continent and of course of the financial institutions try to work out a plan that can help the nations in need and a plan that is strong enough not only for a country like Greece, but also for Italy or Spain.

In my view such plans would work if the societies that need to back the politicians making the decisions weren't in plural rather they would be a sole nation, which of course is not the case. The process of what we see is that the top level politicians heads of states and heads of governments as well as financial leaders are eventually moving towards a more unified Europe something of a true federalistic state-like nature. Yet at the same time the voices that can be heard from within parliaments and people on the street make it clear that there is no social lacking behind the creating a something more federalistic. Furthermore it is my deep concern that the way that the EU and Eurozone leaders communicate their joint actions gives way to irresponsible political voices, whom by exaggeration, mistification and by misleading the people of Europe can earn platforms for their extremist views. As the latest example shows CNN reported on the Conservative Party MPs calling for a nationwide referendum in the UK on leaving the EU and this is of course by far not the worst since I am not even detailing the politics of right extremist parties.

I do not know the answers, but I know you cannot build a system without the nation(s) on board. This is a lesson history has taught us. A lesson we here in Central and Eastern Europe know all too well.

UN Security Council elections final results

2011-10-25T10:05:00.000+02:00

Monday evening after the 16th round of voting Slovenia withdrew its bid for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council. As a result Azerbaijan will represent the Eastern European region.

Lisztomania

2011-10-23T10:28:00.000+02:00

Liszt Ferenc (or Franz Liszt) was true Central European figure. He was a composer that changed the world and had enorme influence on music as we know it today. He also contributed to society in Germany and Austria-Hungary in great ways. He is one of the founders of the Hungarian Academy of Music, which now bears his name.

I suggest you to run through his Wikipedia page, which is truly exhaustive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liszt

Those with more time should read his biography, which is a very good book and of course listen to his music, whose brilliance needs no explanation.

E European post

2011-10-22T00:38:00.000+02:00

With the 5th round of voting for the E European post in the UN Security Council is still unfilled wizh Slovenia and Azerbaijan in run. Hungary dropped out after the 1st round. A state needs two-thirds majority, which is 129 out of 193 states.

Waiting for results ...
Also this weekend Bulgaria holds presidential and municipal elections.
We are also remebering this weekend the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

UN Security Council elections tomorrow

2011-10-20T10:09:00.001+02:00

Though yesterday in the election calendar of next year I also mentioned Turkmenistan and Kazahstan as Eastern European states I must tell you I thought a lot before doing so. Finally I decided that I will mention them since they are former members of the Soviet Union, which was of course Eastern European in all political senses. I particularly want to talk about this today because the voting on the five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council will take place tomorrow on Friday the 21st of October.

Unfortunately in the Eastern European Group there is no clean-slate so it is currently not clear, which of the three nominees: Azerbaijan, Hungary or Slovenia will win. When defining Central and Eastern Europe we always have a hard time this is because these are not only geographic, but also political and cultural questions. I don't want to talk about Central Europe now because that is very comlicated and I will write about it later. (Since the subtitle of my blog mentions CE I will eventually have to give my own definition of it.) What I would now clarify is Eastern Europe and in this respect I think we can agree that a political definition can be used. This political definition for me is practically the former Eastern bloc the post-soviet and post-communist states. So mentioning the UN Regional Group of Eastern Europe is not withjout reason for its members truly seem to roundup what politically may define the region. Today this group has 23 members. Though with a shared history in the 20th century these countries are very much connected it is a region that is very diversified. It is worth noting that one of these dividing lines is the difference of EU membership and non-EU states. Other dividing lines include religious differences between countries with an orthodox majority, muslim countries and of course catholics and protestants.

All of these factors will play an essential role in tomorrow's election where Slovenia and Hungary are both EU member states, which means in case of their election the number of EU states in the UN Security Council would grow to 5 giving a third of this body. Religion is also an issue since Azerbaijan might just be the country elected if all 56 islamic countries support it in the UN General Assembly tomorrow. Finally let us not forget that it is a secret ballot after all so nothing is certain not even diplomatic ties that have long been bound.

2012 election calendar of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

2011-10-19T10:28:00.003+02:00

2012 will have its great share of election drama in the classic democracies of the USA and France with presidential elections in both, but what about Central and Eastern Europe. Lets have a look at some of the less followed elections:

February: Turkmenistan elects a president. Truly I am only mentioning this on the margin of the blog since we all know that it is not a true election. There is only one party running with one candidate ... no more has to be said.

March: In this month we have for ourselves two interesting elections. The 4th of March is the presidential elections of the Russian Federation. The results are of course already forseen with Vladimir Putin former president and current prime minister running again backed by the United Russia party. To allow his run the country even amended its constitution letting someone, who already had two terms as a president be elected again. The only other candidate who has formally announced to run is Gennady Zyuganov from the communist party, while Dmitri Medvedev has declined to run in favor of Putin, who he says is his mentor.

On the 10th of March another exciting election will take place in Slovakia's parliament after Radicova's gamble last week. While nothing is certain yet in this situation we can bet on one thing noone will get an absolute majority. Coalitions are what we will have to follow closely in this ballot.

May: Serbian parliamentary elections are to be held in May. The question is if Boris Tadic's party, which is working toward an accesion in the EU will be able to defend its position in the National Assembly. Also important to watch are the radicals who are currently the second biggest party in parliament. Other important groups are the minorities the Hungarians, the Bosniacs and the Albanians and their share of the votes.

July: Albania elects its president indirectly in the Assembly of Albania, this election with most of the indirect presidential elections in Europe will possibly be an easy one especially if current president Bamir Topi runs for reelection since the coalition that has supported him is still in power.

August: Just like Turkmenistan Kazahstan is not a real democracy. There is one dominant party and guess what at the last election it gained all the seats.

October: More info to come on these since they are far far wawy in time: Slovenian presidential elections will take place. The question is who will run which is not clear year since current president Danilo Türk had some serious health issues in 2011.

Lithuania will hold parliamentary elections in October. Here Adrius Kubilius will probably run again, he has held the office before at the turn of the century we must wait and see if he will survive another election.

Also voting in October are the Ukrainians. Here of course the outcome is currently unpredictable. With the enorme scandal of the trial of Yulia Timoshenko and schemes of breaking the support of her party nothing is certain. Especially with the great foreign (EU) pressure on Ukrainian decision makers to try and change the verdict.

To finish the year we will have the legislative elections of Romania. The question once again seems if the current government will stay. With votings of no confidence and economic cuts we can not be sure ... of course since I am a Hungarian I must mention that it is an election that is important for the Hungarian minority, whose representatives are currently part of the coalition.

Borders, borders, borders

2011-10-17T11:29:00.002+02:00

I just read an article on Poland and Belarus having diplomatic tensions over Poland's easter borders, which of course are Belarus's western. http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/56803,Poland-and-Belarus-in-border-row

I guess this is always going to be this way in the region that we define as Central Europe that countries borders are going to be disputed. Sure enoughthe 20th century was a time when our nation's got a little mixed up and then sliced up and then the borders were pushed and pulled. It is of course the tensions that result from these politics that define the relations between Central and Eastern European countries. Just imagine the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, which belonged to seven different states durint the 20th century.

What Lukashenko the president of Belarus is implying is that Polanmd might want a revision of the borders set after World War II by the Stalin regime. It is certain that such claims are ridiculous and harmful for relations between not only Poland and Belarus, but also the EU and Belarus. It is worthy to note that not so long ago the EU held its Eastern Partnership event in Poland due to the polish presidency of the Council of the European Union. On this meeting the Belarus was criticised for its substantial democtratic deficit. As well as the latest Foreign Council meeting of the EU reaffirmed its restrictions on the BElarus and also made 16 new travel bans and asset freezes. So it is the most likely that noone takes the border row as the main subject of this conversation it is only a way to attack those who we think might have hit us first.

Slovak Saga

2011-10-16T13:01:00.000+02:00

This weeks big news event (besides of course the Clinton concert...) was the interior politics of Slovakia. At least in the Eurozone and in Central Europe it definitely ruled the week.

In short: what happened was that the prime minister Iveta Radicova gambled on a vote and lost. The Slovak parliament, which is a unicameral body making it Slovakia's top legislative body held a vote on the EFSF commonly known as the packege to save Greece. Radicova is the (was) the prime minister of a four-party coalition cabinet out of which 3 parties decided to vote with a yes to the EFSF, the fourth one SaS decided to vote no, which is no suprise since they even campaigned with voting no in last years election. Topush this party to the furthest possible Radicova chose to gamble with her position and the coalition combining the vote for the EFSF with a vote of confidence. Now here comes the tricky part because the opposition would have been willing to vote for the EFSF, but they didn't want the coalition to survive the vote.

The result: the Radicova cabinet is over with. On Thursday the parliament voted yes for EFSF. Preliminary elections on the 10th of March 2012.

In the bigger picture in Central Europe of course we have to look at the possible outcomes of the election. Right now the top candidate seems to be former prime minister Robert Fico, which is not the best of news for the Hungarian minority living in Slovakia. In the past one year of the Radicova government the tensions between Hungary and Slovakia have lightened. It seems now a great loss that the Híd-Most party who was and advocate of Hungarian related issues will fall out of the government and if Fico comes back it is most likely that the situation of the Hungarian minority will worsen.