2014

For many years Hungary appeared to be the model pupil amongst EU candidate countries.  It was the only Eastern Bloc country that managed political transformation by means of an evolutionary process, albeit with the former communist party playing the most important role. Domestic events of recent years are evidence of a radically different picture.  Doubts about EU integration can no longer be ignored in Hungarian politics.

Many of the current problems are clearly generational ̶  with the older generations accepting the rituals and the language of democracy, but not being able to internalise democratic values.

The commemorative tsunami that Europe is gearing up for gives us pause as to our relationship to history and the political use that is made of it.

Europeans have only just understood the meaning of the First World War when they now have to interpret the significance of the Second World War. Claus Leggewie writes about the new beginning in European memory.

“Are Poles good Europeans?”, “Will Poland finally return to Europe?” – these questions, as strange as they may sound to today’s readers, were seriously raised ten years ago, when Poland was about to become a member of the EU. After that decade, Poland has become a completely different country.

When Europeans commemorate the Great War of 1914-18 this summer they should be reflecting not only on the diplomatic blunders and the enormous waste of lives but also the beginning of a new approach to international relations epitomised by the EU.

A European Year of Remembrance is about much more than the First World War, but it is also about its legacy. For above all, it is about the people of Europe. The people of Europe are those who we are commemorating in this project.