Guest speech of the Ambassador of Hungary, H.E. Mr. Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky

As a continuation of the EU series of the IMC Export, Chairperson for Intl. Law Prof. Bajrektarevic invited the current holder of the EU Presidency, the Hungarian ambassador to Austria, H.E. Mr. Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky to give a public lecture on 17th March 2011.

The honorable guest (and his assistant Ms. Veronika Kaszás, the Embassy EU Attaché) was warmly welcomed by Prof. Bajrektarevic, who then commented shortly on his personal relation to Hungary. The ambassador started his presentation with reminding his audience about past relations of formerly united Austria and Hungary, and their at the present day intensive political, cultural and economic relations. Subsequently a short film about Hungary was shown to give the audience fascinating impressions of this country.

The presentation with the highly interesting heading “Strong Europe with a human touch”, which is actually the motto of Hungary’s EU-presidency, introduced firstly the deeper meaning of the motto itself. Thus, the European Union has currently to deal with a lot of pressure coming from various issues such as the currency-crisis with Ireland and Greece. It should handle these problems strongly, nevertheless the human touch should be kept and therefore one key goal of the Hungarian presidency is to “bring people closer to the Union”.

In the course of the presentation the four most important priorities of Hungary during its presidency were outlined, including the following topics. Firstly, growth and social inclusion are a central objective of His Excellency. Currently, the Europe 2020 – strategy is developed, which promotes employment and job creation, as well as facilitating learning programs. Secondly, Europe should become “stronger”. His Excellency focused on highly interesting thoughts about energy-strategies of the whole EU and Hungary in particular. Mentioned has been the European Danube Strategy in relation with Krems, as a city located at the Danube, and other aspects of renewable forms of energy such as wind. The ambassador emphasized the importance of nuclear energy for Hungary, as a country depending on this form of energy generation.

Furthermore, in relation to the key phrase “a union closer to its citizens” has the enlargement of the Schengen-area been discussed by His Excellency. He referred to the need of a political compromise such as a partial extension of the Schengen-area in context with a possible join of Rumania and Bulgaria. At the end of the presentation have the efforts of the EU on the Libyan crisis been revealed. These are the non-fly-zone, the freezing of funds and economic resources of the Gaddafi-clan, and financial help of € 30 million to Libya and neighbouring countries.

The official part of the ambassador’s visit was closed with a family photo and many thanks of Mr. Anis for the excellent presentation and for the interesting links given by His Excellency, for example www.andrassyuni.hu. Additionally, IMC students had the possibility to discuss and ask questions, which His Excellency would answer most comprehensively and interestingly. The Ambassador closed with the wish to have more exchange between Hungary and Austria, also as a study-destination, and some recommendations what to look for when going on holiday to Hungary.

This Guest Lecture was the 85th event organized under the auspices of the International Law Chair and prof. Bajretarevic. The following event of the Chair is a visit to the Europe Haus in Vienna planned for 18th April. The next in-house public lecture will be held on 8th April 2011, when professor Bajrektarevic is hosting Ms. Mag. Monika Kircher Kohl, CEO of Infineon Austria.

http://www.eu2011.hu/
http://www.mfa.gov.hu/


Text: Raffaela F. (rev. A.B.)