Publications of Batory, A.

Referendums in the 'new' member states: Politicisation after a decade of support

In 2003, nine of the ten countries joining the European Union (EU) in the following year held referendums on the question of accession, all resulting in a clear, strong popular endorsement of joining the Union – albeit in many cases with very low participation. In the decade since then, however, the landscape has changed. A series of crises, from the financial and economic crisis of 2007-08 to the ongoing migration crisis undermined confidence in the EU’s effectiveness in tackling problems the bloc is facing. CEE parties use the EU as scapegoat for unpopular policies, claim to stand up for ‘the national interest’ in Brussels, and/or mobilise national (or nationalistic) sentiment against what is portrayed as homogenizing tendencies or forced ‘supranationalisation’. How these dynamics play out in the context of referendums is the subject of this chapter.

'Populists-in-government? Hungary's 'system of national cooperation'

This article considers Hungary’s political system from 2010 to 2014 with Fidesz in power and domestic and international actors’ responses to the challenge of populists-in-government. The article argues that domestic responses were weakened by Fidesz’ use of its supermajority for a partisan redrafting of the country’s constitutional order, but also by its mainstream competitors’ failure to offer a contrasting yet positive vision for the electorate. External actors, and the EU in particular, may therefore have emerged as the main bulwark against the effects of populists-in-government. However, the EU was relatively ill-equipped to deal with systemic violations of the common values of the Union with respect to its member states, and arguably even the available measures were not used to their full potential. The main explanation for this lies in Fidesz’ origins: rather than starting its life on the fringes of the electoral space, the party had been the major, mainstream centre-right alternative. This position in Hungary’s party system had in turn endowed Fidesz with strong transnational links which outlasted the party’s own transformation and continued to act to dampen EU action.

Consistency and diversity? The EU's rotating trio Council Presidency after the Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty introduced significant changes to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). The new Treaty combines a permanent chair with the principle of rotation based on three member states collaborating during an 18-month period, without specifying the responsibilities of trio groups. This left wide scope for the first post-Lisbon trio to establish new working mechanisms. By discussing the joint Presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, this article interprets the trio model and its combination with the permanent chair model as an attempt to re-adjust the balance between consistency and diversity. Rotation remains a key instrument for ensuring the representation of the diversity of member states in an enlarged Union. At the same time, the EU’s ever more complex policy agenda and a greater need for collective leadership motivate the search for new forms of cooperation to enhance policy consistency over consecutive Presidency terms.

Programme Monitoring Committees in cohesion policy: Overseeing the distribution of structural funds in Hungary and Slovakia

Under European Union (EU) law, Monitoring Committees (MCs) are charged with overseeing the implementation of Operational Programmes in cohesion policy. Despite their potential to influence the process of fund disbursement, relatively little is known about the Committees’ operation and their impact in the new member states. This article is an empirical study of how three MCs actually work in Hungary and Slovakia. We find that whilst these bodies have relatively limited oversight capacities and are characterised by a primary concern with procedural compliance with EU requirements, they have an important role in providing significant opportunities for learning, information exchange, expert input and networking.

The national coordination of EU policy in Hungary: Patterns of contrinuity and change

Although European Union (EU) membership generates similar functional pressures for national administrations, member states developed institutional arrangements that show marked cross-country variation in the coordination of EU policy. This article examines and assesses the institutions and mechanisms established in Hungary for formulating polity positions on the domestic level and communicating them to the EU level. In line with the general features of central government, the system is highly centralized and hierarchical, and has been characterized by a comprehensive coordination ambition from its inception. The case confirms the primary importance of national institutional factors for shaping coordination systems, but also the relevance of more actor-centered explanations for accounting for changes in the top decision-making tier. At the same time, the Hungarian experience also draws attention to power relations within governing parties and prime ministerial involvement as key variables so far relatively neglected in the literature.

The Power of the Purse: Supranational Entrepreneurship, Financial Incentives, and European Higher Education Policy

This article shows how the European Commission cultivates policy shifts toward a particular idea of a common European Higher Education Area by using its considerable financial leverage. By making European Union (EU) funding dependent on grant recipients meeting certain strategically selected conditions, the Commission creates new incentive structures for domestic actors, in this case higher education institutions (HEIs), with two important consequences. First, the Commission turns universities into agents for its policies: Universities lobby governments to pass legislation, which would allow them to conform to Commission requirements. Second, HEIs try to comply with the Commission’s requirements even in the absence of compatible national frameworks, thereby leapfrogging policy decisions on the national level. Describing this as a “soft” mechanism for achieving convergence, as Open Method of Coordination accounts posit, overlooks the fundamentally non-negotiable nature of the process from the participants’ perspective and considerably underestimates the Commission’s real influence. We examine this argument through a case study of an EU-funded higher education program, Erasmus Mundus.

Post-accession malaise? EU conditionality, domestic politics and anti-corruption policy in Hungary

Corruption in the then candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe was a major concern for the European Union (EU) before its 2004 enlargement. This concern and its expression in the conditionality of membership constituted strong incentives for the candidate countries' governments to control corruption – or more precisely to take control measures that could be communicated to the European Union. A common assumption in the literature is that with the removal by accession of these incentives anti-corruption efforts would not be maintained at their pre-accession level. But is this really the case? Or have other influences from international organisations, domestic politics or civil society taken over to provide impetus for further corruption control interventions? This article considers these questions with respect to Hungary and finds that while some of the post-2004 measures have been a response to the country's international commitments, there have also been important domestic sources of reform. The results are, however, limited: despite the country's relatively smooth path to the European Union, membership of all the major international legal instruments and three major reform packages since 2000, corruption seems no less prevalent than it was a decade before.

A 2004. évi európai parlamenti választások : pártok és szavazói magatartás nemzetközi összehasonlításban

The 2004 Elections to the European Parliament : Parties and Voting Behaviour in Cross-national Comparison.

Az első magyarországi európai parlamenti választások

The first European elections in Hungary.