For Hungary and the Visegrád countries, it is particularly important that we should protect and reinforce the tangible achievements of integration which serve the good of the people in our everyday lives: the smooth functioning of the internal market, the four fundamental freedoms, and the cohesion and rural development policies, our co-author Szabolcs TAKÁCS, State Secretary for EU Affairs writes, who takes the view that the underlying thought behind any contemplation regarding the future of Europe must be the concept of “a strong Europe of strong Member States”.
“European cooperation (…) does not diminish or absorb (the nation) but confers on it a broader and higher field of action.”, Robert Schuman, who started European integration with his declaration of 9 May 1950, wrote in 1963, shortly before his death,. The conservative politicians who founded the European Union – Schuman, Monnet, Adenauer, de Gasperi and the others – sought to create a united Europe on the foundations of cooperation and mutual trust among strong nation states and the democratic equality of the European peoples. In the interest of preserving peace, economic and social development, and last but not least, the raising of living standards, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg entered into the Treaty of Rome sixty years ago, on 25 March 1957. As a result a common market came into being in which goods, persons, services and capital are free to move between the Member States. At the same time, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the obstacles were finally removed, and after a division of almost half a century, the countries of Eastern-Central-Europe, too, were able to join the European cooperation and the common market which – for the countries freshly liberated from communism – embodied the advantages and values of the western world in a tangible manner. To use the phrase of Pope John Paul II, Europe “began to breathe with two lungs again”. Additionally, the Schengen Agreement which came into effect in 1995 even abolished the internal borders, thereby fully realising the principles of the four freedoms laid down in Rome. With regard to this, we have every reason to describe the European Union as the success story of the 20th century which, by relying upon the principles laid down at the time of its foundation, was able to guarantee the continuously growing welfare of the continent.
The EU was, however, unable to effectively adapt to the challenges of the 21st century. The economic crisis, mass migration and terrorism caused major disruptions in the functioning of the European Union, and what is perhaps even more important is that it shook the faith of European citizens in the process of integration. Western-Europeans who grew up on the luckier side of the Iron Curtain were faced with the fact for the first time since World War II that the future is uncertain, while EU decision-makers continued to force the same old answers onto the new challenges, thereby further deepening the gap between the everyday expectations of European citizens and the concepts of the EU. Increasingly more frequently, the European Union fails to observe its own rules regarding the protection of the borders, fiscal discipline or the operation of financial institutions, and we are experiencing signs of regression, rather than progress, in the perhaps most significant achievements of the integration process: the fundamental freedoms created by the Treaty of Rome and the operation of the Schengen system. And as one of the consequences and culmination of the crises emerging one after the other, British electors decided to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016.
The series of crises which began almost a decade ago and culminated in Brexit highlighted with more clarity than ever before that the functioning of the EU must be adjusted to the realities of today, and at the same time, it also created an opportunity for the Member States to face up to the problems, to assess the causes of the crises and to propose solutions. After the British referendum deciding in favour of Britain’s exit, the heads of state and government of the EU27 met for the first time on 29 June 2016 in order to exchange their views on the future of Europe in the new situation that will emerge in the wake of Brexit, and the leaders of the Member States continued their joint contemplation regarding the future of Europe on 13 September 2016 in Pozsony and on 3 February 2017 in Malta, in preparation for the Rome summit to be held on 25 March 2017 on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
In preparation for the Rome summit and the declaration to be adopted there, several groups of the Member States and the European Commission, too, voiced their own thoughts about the future of the EU. On 28 January 2017, the southern Member States, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain released a joint document under the title “Lisbon Declaration” in which they pledged their support for the promotion of investments, growth, job creation and convergence, as well as for the reinforcement of the internal and external security of Europe, including the maintenance of the Schengen Area without internal borders and the monitoring of the EU’s external borders. The Benelux States also released a joint memorandum on 3 February 2017 which stresses the importance of the protection of the single market and the Schengen Area, and lays down with reference to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality that the EU can only take action if the given action cannot be implemented at Member State level and the EU action conveys an added value. On 1 March 2017, the European Commission published its White Paper regarding the future of the European Union which outlines five possible political scenarios with respect to European integration up to 2025: continuing the current agenda, focusing on the single market, a “multi-speed Europe”, delivering more in selected policy areas, and a federalist union. The summit of France, Germany, Spain and Italy took place in Versailles on 6 March 2017 where the attendees decided in favour of „differentiated cooperation”, or in other words, the concept of a multi-speed Europe.
The Visegrád Four also disclosed their joint ideas regarding the future of Europe at their Warsaw summit held on 2 March 2017. The title of the document was “Union of action and trust”. The joint V4 declaration highlights that the EU must remain open to the integration of the Western Balkans and Eastern countries, lays down the preservation of the four fundamental freedoms and the guaranteeing of the people’s welfare as priorities, and further stresses that the Member States outside the Eurozone cannot take responsibility for the difficulties of the Eurozone. Regarding the external dimension of security, the declaration places the emphasis on the controlling of the external borders, while regarding the internal aspects of security, it sees the restoration of the Schengen regime as a key priority, highlighting that the EU must make efforts to intensify its defence policy cooperation, and further to respect the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
At the celebratory summit held on 25 March 2017 on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the heads of Member States and EU institutions signed the Rome Declaration which lays down that genuine responses must be given to the concerns of citizens, the principle of subsidiarity must be respected, and the role of national parliaments must be reinforced. The declaration further lays down that the Member States are unable to rise to the challenges on their own, and therefore – though at different paces and intensity – they must act together and move in the same direction. The Rome Declaration additionally emphasises that the EU is open to the countries seeking to join which respect the common values, and outlines as a goal for the future the development of a safe and secure, stable, prosperous and sustainable, social and strong Europe. According to plans, with the Rome Declaration, a process of comprehensive self-reflection will begin referred to as the „Rome process”, in closure of which the heads of state and government would adopt a decision concerning the future of Europe in December 2017.
Ever since the collapse of the communist regimes, Hungary has coordinated its actions with its Visegrád partners, and there is day-to-day cooperation among the four countries also at policy level. From among the countries of the former Soviet bloc, the EU first started restoring trade relations with Poland and Hungary, and based on the 1990 Dublin meeting, accession talks began with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On 1 May 2004, the four countries – together with six further partners – became members of the European Union at the same time, and soon after their accession, the region also became part of the Schengen Area. By using the advantages inherent in joint action and preparation, the Visegrád Four submitted their applications for joining the Schengen Area together, and when the already participating Member States were considering the deferral of the enlargement of the Schengen Area, thanks to the firm joint efforts of the Visegrád and the Baltic States with a view to the enforcement of their interests, we gained Schengen membership on 21 December 2007, barely two months after the originally planned date.
Following accession, the exports of the V4 increased three times more dynamically than those of the EU-15, and the region became the fourth largest exporter of the EU28. The Visegrád countries combined are the European Union’s largest car manufacturers after Germany, and its fifth largest economy. The cohesion funds and the direct payments under the common agricultural policy have undeniable merits in the region’s economic advancement, and in its recovery from the economic crisis. However, the Western-European economy, too, profited from the accession of the Visegrád countries as they built new production facilities in these regions, thereby enhancing their competitiveness, and a Polish study recently highlighted that compared with their respective contributions, Austria profited from the cohesion funds provided for the V4 countries at a rate of 330%, Germany at a rate of 150%, while the Netherlands at a rate of 145%.
Cooperation is significant not only in the economy; the representation of the region’s common interests is becoming increasingly more successful in key policy issues as well. The “mini-summits” of the V4 Prime Ministers before the meetings of the European Council always play an important coordinational and strategic role in the more emphatic representation of the Central-European positions and interests during the course of decision-making in the EU, but in addition to consultations at the highest level, there are also regular talks at the level of experts as well as among the members of the national parliaments. In the series of crises that has afflicted the EU since 2008, the Central-European countries have cooperated throughout, and European politics and public opinion are now paying attention to the actions taken by the Visegrád countries, thanks to the fact to a non-negligible extent that the region demonstrates unity also on strategic issues such as migration, the protection of Schengen, Brexit, or the maintenance of the single internal market. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey, the faith and trust of the citizens of the Visegrád countries in the European Union is above the EU average; being European and national awareness determine the identity of citizens in the region at the same time.
For this reason, it is particularly important for Hungary and the Visegrád countries that we should protect and reinforce the tangible achievements of integration which serve the good of the people in our everyday lives: the smooth functioning of the internal market, the four fundamental freedoms, and the cohesion and rural development policies. The memory of sealed borders is still vivid in the countries of the region, and therefore we, the people of Visegrád can appreciate all the more the freedom offered by the Schengen system, and this is why we urge the termination of controls on the internal Schengen borders as soon as possible. We take the view that the principles laid down in our joint declaration of 2 March and the concept of “a strong Europe of strong Member States” must take the lead in our joint contemplation regarding our common future, and we continue to remain ready to identify our concepts and expectations clearly and sincerely. The next few years may prove to be decisive in whether the European project can be adjusted to the new realities, and will remain viable, or will become a mere footnote on the pages of history books. We believe that – as it was after World War II – Europe will be able to renew itself also this time, and we, too, wish to play an active part in this renewal. We do not accept the demolition of the results we have already achieved, and we stand by the principles laid down at the time of the establishment of the European cooperation: the equality of the Member States, the observance of rules created with a consensus, and respect for the national differences and strategic national interests. By the words of the already cited Robert Schuman: “Europe will acquire her soul in the diversity of its qualities and aspirations. The unity of these essential conceptions can be conciliated with the plurality of traditions and convictions and with the responsibility for personal choices. Today’s Europe must come into being based on a co-existence that is not just a conglomeration of competing – and from time to time even hostile – nations, but a freely organised, functional, consensus-based community.”