Regionalizmus, államközi verseny és geopolitika: az európai integráció és Közép-Európa

Relations between states in Central Europe in the post-communist and post-Cold War context are the major foci of the paper. Their perception of „Europe" as a project of „return" or as a framework of an existing geographical entity are investigated in relation with the coming enlargement of the European Union. I offer an overview of the political history of East Central Europe and its subregions (Baltic region, Central European region, Southeast European region) focusing on the Central European countries today’s Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Romania and Hungary – before, during and after communist rule. The historical overview starts by referring to Jenő Szücs idea of three historical regions of Europe, then it discusses the fate of the Central European countries from a „buffer zone" to a Sovietized belt. In the post-communist context, the Central European countries are seeking „to return" to Europe, in order not to reconstruct the „buffer zone" status of the region characteristic of the inter-war period. From a Hungarian viewpoint there were three epochs in the post-1989 history of Central Europe. First, between 1989 and late 1991, when the Soviet Union still existed, these countries found common interest in co-operation to harmonize their steps „toward Europe". It was the period when the „Visegrad countries" formed themselves as a loose alliance in the process. The second period (1992-95) was marked with turmoil in the former Soviet Union, and the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the „velvet separation" of the Czech and Slovak republics. This was the period of the “Balkanization" of Central Europe, when countries turned away from co-operation and started to take part individually in the competition „to get closer" to the West. This period ended with the Dayton agreement and a more active external pressure of some Western countries, especially the U.S. External impacts contributed to reconstruct some forms of the former Visegrad co-operation, and to force some states to make peace (Dayton) or to sign bilateral treaties with each other.

The process accelerated in 1997, when three countries of Central Europe received invitation to join NATO, and six countries were invited for negotiations with the EU concerning EU enlargement in the near future. While Central European countries tend to co-operate with each other again, it is rather the result of external effects. The European Union however – with its five different possible self-definitions – still rather means a „moving target" for the Central European new democracies than a community with fixed rules and procedures.