Suchergebnisse

The importance of green and renewable energy sources, as well as environmental awareness, is playing an increasing role in our lives as we move forward in time. Even at the conceptual level, it is already understandable and clear to most people what should or could be done to protect the Earth. The use of renewable energy sources, such as the energy of the sun, wind, water, and geothermal energy all contribute to the development of the environmental values of the individual and society, which is shaped by knowledge and moral convictions about the environment. As irresponsible energy-wasting behavior is unsustainable in the long run and can lead to the depletion of natural resources, the use of alternative energy sources can provide a solution to this global problem. For this reason, the main goal of the representative research is to examine the possibilities of using and applying green and renewable energy sources in the case of all 25 settlements of the micro-region of Gyöngyös in the region of Northern Hungary. A questionnaire survey was used as the primary research method, the aim of which is to explore the extent of local governments' investments in renewable energy sources, and what other methods these local governments contribute to the development of environmental awareness of the local population. Based on the results obtained, according to the investments of the local governments, solar energy (e.g. solar panels) is the most efficient energy source, which is closely followed by the use of biomass. Developments and investments related to renewable energy are implemented to a significant extent from domestic or European Union tender sources. The amount of renewable energy investments planned in the future is expected to be between HUF 10 and 25 million in the case of smaller local governments, and more than HUF 100 million in the case of larger local governments. ; A zöld- és megújuló enerigaforrások, valamint a környezettudatosság jelentősége egyre nagyobb szerepet játszik az életünkbe, ahogy haladunk előre az időben. Fogalmi meghatározás szintjén is, már a legtöbb ember számára érthető és egyértelmű, hogy mit kellene vagy lehetne tenni a Föld megóvása érdekében. A megújuló energiaforrások használata, mint pl. a nap-, szél-, folyóvizek energiája, illetve a geotermikus energia, mind hozzájárulnak az egyén és a társadalom környezeti értékrendjeinek fejlődéséhez, melyet a környezetről alkotott tudás és morális meggyőződés alakít ki. Mivel a felelőtlen energiapazarló magatartás hosszútávon nem fenntartható, és a természeti erőforrások kimerüléséhez vezethet, így az alternatív energiaforrások használata nyújthat megoldást erre a világméretű problémára. Ennek okán, a reprezentatív kutatás legfőbb célja, a zöld- és megújuló energiaforrások felhasználási és alkalmazási lehetőségeinek vizsgálata, az Észak-magyarországi régióban található Gyöngyösi járás mind a 25 településének esetében. Elsődleges kutatási módszerként kérdőíves megkérdezés került alkalmazásra, melynek célja, hogy az önkormányzatok megújuló energiaforrásokkal kapcsolatos beruházásainak mértékét feltárja, illetve, hogy ezek az önkormányzatok milyen egyéb módszerekkel járulnak hozzá a helyi lakosság környezettudattosságának fejlesztéséhez. A kapott eredmények alapján, az önkormányzatok beruházásai szerint a napenergia (pl. napelemek) a leghatékonyabb energiaforrás, amelyet szorosan követ a biomassza felhasználás. A megújuló energiához kapcsolódó fejlesztések és beruházások jelentős mértékben hazai vagy európai uniós pályázati forrásokból valósulnak meg. A jövőben tervezett megújuló energia beruházások összege, a kisebb önkormányzatok esetében várhatóan többnyire 10 - 25 millió forint között lesz, a nagyobb helyi önkormányzatok esetében pedig, több mint 100 millió forint.

The representative of the Hungarian peace delegation took over the final regulations of the peace conference that closed the I. World War, in the beginning of May 1920. The peace treaty dislocated Hungary and with the disannexed territories millions of Hungarians were forced to live in the neighbouring countries. The Hungarian government could react for this dramatic and significant event in two ways: on one hand accept and undersign, on the other side refuse its signatory. After a long debate, the government and the assembly –notwithstanding the public"s dismissal –were under the necessity of the pressure of the victorious powers, and made up their mind of signature. This study leads on this decisionmaking progress, on the strength of the elaboration and analysis of the reports of the government meetings in May 1920. The first part of the study shows debates in the meetings of the cabinet council and the political circumstances of the decision. The second part, in turn, shows the dramatic progress of the decisionmaking, as a result of which they pointed the representatives, whose task was the signature on the 4th June 1920 in the Castle of Grand Trianon. As a part of this, the study examines the personal decisions, the possible signatories, the ones who previously undertook the task. The study furnishes an answer for the controversial question, that why Dr. Ágost Benárd, welfare and labour minister and Alfréd Drasche-Lázár, extraordinary delegate were chosen by the government for the signature.

The peace treaty that was signed by the representatives of the Hungarian government at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles on the 4th June 1920, closed the hostilities between the warring parties, and with its 364 articles, it recorded the severe conditions of peace, striking on the defeated Hungary. The peace agreement has not yet become effective with the signing ceremony. The enactment, ratification and sanction of the signed treaty were just ahead. Since the peace treaty was among the international agreements that came in force only after the ratification – and the implementation could also be demanded after the act – the Hungarian party done all to ensure that the ratification take place as late as possible. They wanted to achieve their limited revisionist goals during this period. However, the victorious powers urged the prompt ratification. It was more than a year process from the beginning of the ratification till the peace agreement entered into force which period can be divided into two major clearly separable phases. The first phase lasted from the signing of the peace treaty on 4 June 1920 till 26 October 1920 with its submission to the National Assembly. The second phase includes parliamentary debates and the ratification itself lasting until 26 July 1921, the exchanging of the ratification documents. The size of the subject made it necessary to present the events of the two periods in two separate studies. Thus, the present study describes and analyzes the events of the first period. The essay gives full details of the ratification as an international norm, covering the codification position of Hungary and the Little Entente states and, relating to the victorious powers efforts. The document gives a detailed analyzes of the great powers's policy which finally forced the Hungarian government to submit the ratification of the Trianon Peace Treaty to the National Assembly.

Following the 1948 Bucarest resolution of the COMINFORM, better known as Information Office (TI) the situation between Yugoslavia and the neighbouring peoples" democracies dramatically worsened. However secret data collection and network organisation between the opposing parties started much earlier. Tito was in an advantageous position concerning intelligence because in the framework of the Allied Control Commission he had a military mission working in Hungary. The representatives of the mission had fruitful relationship with important Hungarian political and military personalities. After the acceptance of the Soviet dictate mapping the foreign relationships, internal situation, industrial capacity, stocks of raw materials, and military preparedness of the country led by Tito the "main evil", the "dog of the imperialists" had an important place in the activities of the secret services of the peace camp.

In the independent Croatia elections are among the most important political processes, hence they are the central elements of the whole transition. The importance of elections has increased the importance of electoral systems as institutional forms of arranging elections, and they became main constitutional arrangements of the new democratic country. There have been no any new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe with such frequent and radical changes of electoral systems in the first decade after political changes. In the entire transitional region there has been no country that in ten years carried out three big, electoral reforms. In ten years, all the central models of the electoral systems for the first chamber of the Parliament have been remoulded: the absolute majority system (1990), the segmented system with the equal ratio of direct and closed list seats (1992), the segmented system with the preponderant share of the closed list seats (1995) and the proportional representation (2000).

Two questions will be discussed in the following paper, which, on the basis of the European Union's regional policy document plans, are considered symptomatic in the declining competitiveness of Eastern and Central European spatial policy and will be listed among the key factors in the preparation for the new programming period. These are the following: the institutional balance point of spatial development and the inevitable factor of knowledge-based development, research and development. Before the examination of these factors of content, the declining competitiveness of regional policy will be discussed in European comparison. In the period of the preparation for the new Structural Policy, besides the objectives of supports, resources and mechanisms of structural instruments, the exploitation of the new driving forces of spatial development must also be taken into consideration. The former question is related to the representation of national interests in the EU, the latter task belongs to the domain of national sectoral policies and institutional structures. The modification of factors shaping spatial development necessitates the transformation of the system of objectives, instruments and institutions of regional policy. This also implies the enforcement of national interests.

A régiók nem csak a közelmúltban jelentek meg az európai politika színpadán, mint önálló szereplők, tevékenységüket már évtizedek óta jegyzik. Ennek középpontjában mindenekelőtt a régiók határokon átnyúló együttműködése áll, ezt egészítették ki a régiók transznacionális megállapodásaival, amelyek arra szolgáltak, hogy a nemzetállamok kormányaival valamint a nemzetközi szervezetekkel, különösképpen az Európa Tanáccsal és az Európai Közösséggel szemben érdekképviseletüket gyakorolják. Az utóbbi időben a régiók egyre energikusabban és követelőbben hívták fel magukra a figyelmet. Tevékenységük súlypontja jelenleg nyilvánvalóan az EU és az integrációs folyamatokon belül helyezkedik el. A régiók mint az EU-kontextus politikai tényezői igen sokrétű tevékenységet mutatnak fel, amelyek az "Európa régiói" megjelölésben foglalhatók össze. Az elnevezésből, mint sokszor használatos szlogenből azonban hiányzik egy egyértelmű és ugyanakkor közös megegyezéssel alapuló, elfogadott tartalom. Regions appeared as autonomous entities on the European political stage not only in recent years. The activity of regions has been recorded for decades. It focuses above all on the cross-border cooperation of regions, and was supplemented by the trans-national agreements of regions, which served to practice their representation against the governments of nation states as well as international organisations, in particular, the European Council and the European Community. Most recently, regions have drawn attention to their presence more and more and when doing so have found increasing attention. Their centre of activity is now obviously located within the EU and the integration processes. Regions as the political factors of the EU context show a wide range of activities that can be summarized under the label of 'the regions of Europe'. The name, as a frequently used slogan, is lacking a clear and at the same time jointly agreed, accepted content. Regions and regionalism are rather flourishing in Europe. But what do regionalism and the expression Europe of regions exactly mean? There are many approaches to the question, the concept of cross-border interregionality between the Member States of the European Union, or the effort to make regions the basic building blocks of European integration instead of states, and the objective to introduce a three-tier structure to the European Union which would extend the already existing tiers of the European Union and the Member States with a third one, the territorial units within nation states. The first approach has long been adopted, the second approach is rather utopian. The third one is subject to fierce debates: a three-tier European Union with European, nation state and regional levels.

On the whole we can claim that in the last almost sixty years there was a significant change in Croatian-Hungarian trans-border relationships. State-governed cooperation was replaced by project-controlled co-operations under the guidance of local-governments and the civil sphere. Unfortunately, stock and human workforce deficit very often obstructs success. Besides it is a permanent problem in our country that state politics has a great influence on local-government politics. So in a certain euroregion the success of operation highly depends on where the local-governments and civil organization belong to politically and on the leaders' ability to validate their interests. As a result of stock deficit mentioned previously project-based co-operations occurred.1 But these ad hoc project associations are not able and won't even be able to use union sources efficiently and generate any kind of long-term regional development. ; On the whole we can claim that in the last almost sixty years there was a significant change in Croatian-Hungarian trans-border relationships. State-governed cooperation was replaced by project-controlled co-operations under the guidance of local-governments and the civil sphere. Unfortunately, stock and human workforce deficit very often obstructs success. Besides it is a permanent problem in our country that state politics has a great influence on local-government politics. So in a certain euroregion the success of operation highly depends on where the local-governments and civil organization belong to politically and on the leaders' ability to validate their interests. As a result of stock deficit mentioned previously project-based co-operations occurred.1 But these ad hoc project associations are not able and won't even be able to use union sources efficiently and generate any kind of long-term regional development.

This study focusses mainly on the identification procedures concerning underaged victims, and sepcifically third country national citizens in Hungary. Combating human trafficking has become a more and more highlighted field within the European Union since the early 2000s. After adapting related directives and strategies, Member States are obliged to provide appropriate assistance to victims and maintain an effective identification and referral mechanism. However two national strategies have been published since 2008 in Hungary, there are concerns regarding the practical implementation of the action plan outlined. Also the lack of a recent strategy and not defining minors as priority by clearly addressing the issue contributed to the critics worded by GRETA and TIP reports. An insufficient identification procedure has been revealed through expert interviews, although Hungary has implemented all the related directives and startegies. Important aspects of the specific situation of migrant children are presented in the paper to be considered in the elaboration of a more childcentered approach. There are no statistics yet on the number of identified victims in the country, and representatives of the National Coordination Office and the Immigration Office confirmed that amongst unaccompanied minors no victim has been identified by the end of February 2019. Another concern is the sustainability of the national system given that very low percentage of the costs covered by the State and improvements, means have been mainly funded through EU projects, therefor a stable and permanent solution, a highly responsive system is not a reality yet.

The Great Depression that broke out on 24th October 1929 resulted a severe agricultural and credit crisis in Hungary. Therefor the Hungarian foreign policy's aim was to encourage the foreign investments on the one hand, and to circulate loans for the country ont he other hand, and last but not least obtain foreign markets for the Hungarian agricultural products. The present study summarize the attempts of the Hungarian foreign policy between 1929 and 1932, that the Hungarian government led by István Bethlen and Gyula Károlyi trying to achieve in order to overcome the crisis. The study describes Bethlen's negotiations in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, that brought part success, but did not result a breakthrough and Hungary's external action concerning the German-Austrian customs union plan. It presents the two foreign ministers Lajos Walko's and Gyula Karolyi's attempts. Concerning Gyula Károlyi is about the Hungarian foreign policy's French orientation attempt. Finally, the study summarize the reasons that ultimately led to the failure of both governments. Finding the foreign policy solution for recovering from the crisis left for the 1932 October founded government and for Gyula Gombos.

The study examines the results of the 1922 general elections on the basis of new research into so-far unexplored sources. One novelty of the present paper is that it compares these results to the already existing research on the field, and debates the arguments of other scholars discussing the topic. The study proves that besides the 140–143 mandates of the United Party (Egységes Párt), the government was also supported by approximately 30 members of the parliament. This altogether meant 170–173 Christian-conservative MPs. It really stood for the "Two-Third" parliamentary support of Bethlen's government. However, the paper also calls attention to the fact that the elections yielded this result not only because of the open ballot system of the rural areas, but also due to corruption and breaching of law in the sphere of civil service. Consequently, whoever praises the system of consolidation by István Bethlen's government, should also keep in mind that it was not based on universal suffrage and secret ballot that were deemed necessary in a modern parliamentary democracy.

The plebiscite on the independence of Catalonia was adopted by the parliament of the Autonomous Community on 6th September 2017, which was suspended two days later by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Despite the prohibition of the Constitutional Court, the Catalan government decided to hold the illegal referendum on 1st October 2017, which increased the tensions between the Spanish cabinet and the Generalitat as a result of harsh police force's riots. At the end of October 2017, the Catalan regional parliament declared the independence of the Autonomous Community. The reaction of the Spanish government was that it suspended the autonomy of Catalonia and decided to call early elections on 21st December 2017. Although the pro-independence parties (JuntsxCat and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) won the elections, they could only constitute a stable government by the external support of the radical left-wing party, Alternativa de Esquerres. The objective of my essay is to evaluate the political and economic consequences of the Catalan plebiscite, which was held on 1st October 2017. The popular vote about the self-determination of Catalonia caused a political and legal uncertainty and influenced the economic situation of the Autonomous Community and Spain negatively. The events which happened in Catalonia contributed to the loss of control over the legislature by a motion of no confidence against the Government of Mariano Rajoy and increased the division between the Catalan and the Spanish society. Because of length constraints, I will not highlight the European Union's policy of the People's Party and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Besides the evaluation of the political and economic outcomes of the Catalan referendum, the main aim of the paper is to give insight into the factors that determined the independence process in Catalonia.

The plebiscite on the independence of Catalonia was adopted by the parliament of the Autonomous Community on 6th September 2017, which was suspended two days later by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Despite the prohibition of the Constitutional Court, the Catalan government decided to hold the illegal referendum on 1st October 2017, which increased the tensions between the Spanish cabinet and the Generalitat as a result of harsh police force's riots. At the end of October 2017, the Catalan regional parliament declared the independence of the Autonomous Community. The reaction of the Spanish government was that it suspended the autonomy of Catalonia and decided to call early elections on 21st December 2017. Although the pro-independence parties (JuntsxCat and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) won the elections, they could only constitute a stable government by the external support of the radical left-wing party, Alternativa de Esquerres. The objective of my essay is to evaluate the political and economic consequences of the Catalan plebiscite, which was held on 1st October 2017. The popular vote about the self-determination of Catalonia caused a political and legal uncertainty and influenced the economic situation of the Autonomous Community and Spain negatively. The events which happened in Catalonia contributed to the loss of control over the legislature by a motion of no confidence against the Government of Mariano Rajoy and increased the division between the Catalan and the Spanish society. Because of length constraints, I will not highlight the European Union's policy of the People's Party and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Besides the evaluation of the political and economic outcomes of the Catalan referendum, the main aim of the paper is to give insight into the factors that determined the independence process in Catalonia.

This study is a natural continuation of the author's earlier book on privatization in Hungary, covering the developments between 1989 and 2009 on 1700 pages. As it is well-known, the right wing FIDESZ government, which came to power with a 2/3 supermajority in Parliament, has embarked upon a totally new economic policy as from mid-2010. Within this setting, illiberal constitutional changes and unortodox economic policies were implemented. Renationalization was a significant (but not the most important) building block of this. As we analysed the individual transactions, it turned out that actually many of them were initiated by the previous, Socialist led government. In other words, there are interesting elements of continuity here, especially in the energy sector. Another interesting finding is, that almost without exceptions, the renationalization deals were not implemented by force, the Hungarian state paid quite generously to the sellers. In the case of the largest deals, there is even reason to speak of sweetheart deals through which the Hungarian government tried to make favour to German and US businesses. So far, the renationalization affected more than 200 firms (including banks) for which some HUF 1600 bn (≈ 5bn €) state money was used. This figure, just as the sums involved in the individual transactions are somewhat misleading, if compared to the privatization revenues generated by previous governments prior to 2010. However, if all transactions – i.e. asset sales and asset purchases – are expressed as a percentage of Hungary's annual GDP, it becomes clear that the post 2010 nationalization deals were much smaller than the 1990-2000 privatization deals.

The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of the domestic policy changes affecting privately owned businesses in Hungary during the reign of the 2nd and 3rd Orbán governments. After careful selection and omission of the less important measures, 36 examples are discussed. Their common characteristics are their discriminatory nature, meaning that they supported some firms and/or state-owned entities, while other businesses - chiefly the ones owned by foreign investors - were negatively affected. These new laws, regulations, by-laws or daily practices were openly in conflict with the letters and the spirit of the acquis communautaire - the guiding principles of the European Union. The Hungarian authorities played on time. Their assumption was - and this assumption did prove to be correct in practice - that it would take years until the EU machinery would reach a verdict and instruct Hungary, as a member-state to repel the given legislation. An important finding of the paper is that in 16 cases out of the 36 cases presented, the previous Hungarian governments also relied on such discriminatory solutions, but these cases were not so costly for the targeted private businesses and were not implemented with such a brutal force. As it is well-known, parallel to the policy measures discussed in the paper, the 2nd and 3rd Orbán-governments proceeded with a broad renationalization policy as well. These events were discussed at great length in Mihályi (2015a).