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Apr 5, 2012
Mar 9, 2012
Mar 7, 2012
Putin again
Putin won the elections on the 4th of March. He has now become the president of the Russain Federation for a third time. He won with a large majority. He will be the president for six years to come.
Some say this is the beginning of the end of the Putin era. Truly there might be signs of a new poltical force on the rising, but let us not forget that these forces are weak and as I am aware mainly only in existence in the major urban areas of Russia. For now I am most certain that Putin has not much to fear.
It also goes without saying that he has seen the Arab spring and perhaps learnt from it. I know of course that Russia is not a totally undemocratic state, but it does have democratic deficits. The president in Russia has very strong constitutional competences some them shared with the Federal Assembly, but out of the two houses of the assembly only the State Duma is elected directly.
We have six exciting years ahead of us to talk about Putin's role in Russia and on the world stage. For us Europeans Russia is a key partner because we are srtongly dependent on eahc other economically especially within the energy sector. Once again the question might rise is economic and political stability more important than the democratic, political values and views on human rights?
Some say this is the beginning of the end of the Putin era. Truly there might be signs of a new poltical force on the rising, but let us not forget that these forces are weak and as I am aware mainly only in existence in the major urban areas of Russia. For now I am most certain that Putin has not much to fear.
It also goes without saying that he has seen the Arab spring and perhaps learnt from it. I know of course that Russia is not a totally undemocratic state, but it does have democratic deficits. The president in Russia has very strong constitutional competences some them shared with the Federal Assembly, but out of the two houses of the assembly only the State Duma is elected directly.
We have six exciting years ahead of us to talk about Putin's role in Russia and on the world stage. For us Europeans Russia is a key partner because we are srtongly dependent on eahc other economically especially within the energy sector. Once again the question might rise is economic and political stability more important than the democratic, political values and views on human rights?
Feb 13, 2012
Airlines, airports, trains and buses
Barely has a week passed since the Hungarian national airline Malév went bankrupt. This inspired me to do some thinking on one of my favourite issues transportation. It is a field of industry that is very interesting to me because it has to face extreme challenges in the future and also because it is one of tje government owned industries in Hungary that has been needing financial support for many years now working with old inefficient structures.
It is my solid belief that good organisation is key to all fields of economic activities. This is especially true with something as complex as transportation. In my view the different means of transportation can be seen as different levels of a complex system.
Air transportation is used for international movement in Hungary due to the country's size. This means that the country has one principal airport in Budapest. This is not very healthy situation in terms of regional development, but the example of Malév shows that this is probably realistic. Despite this as a believer in the development of new Central European business hubs I think Hungary and more expressively the bigger countryside cities of Hungary should collaborate with working regional airports of the neighbouring countries.
In an ideal setting the railways would also be focused on these cities with real intercity trains only stopping in cities of economic significance, while slower passenger trains could collect all passengers from other station transportimg them to the hubs. Finally the bus transport system should do the same on an even lower level reaching all villages and settlements. Thus a complex net of transportation could be created between the regional economic hubs.
It is my solid belief that good organisation is key to all fields of economic activities. This is especially true with something as complex as transportation. In my view the different means of transportation can be seen as different levels of a complex system.
Air transportation is used for international movement in Hungary due to the country's size. This means that the country has one principal airport in Budapest. This is not very healthy situation in terms of regional development, but the example of Malév shows that this is probably realistic. Despite this as a believer in the development of new Central European business hubs I think Hungary and more expressively the bigger countryside cities of Hungary should collaborate with working regional airports of the neighbouring countries.
In an ideal setting the railways would also be focused on these cities with real intercity trains only stopping in cities of economic significance, while slower passenger trains could collect all passengers from other station transportimg them to the hubs. Finally the bus transport system should do the same on an even lower level reaching all villages and settlements. Thus a complex net of transportation could be created between the regional economic hubs.
Dec 6, 2011
Hungarian plan for national growth
I posted a list of cities from Central Europe with a population of more than a hundred thousand. In the back of my mind while compiling the list I was thinking of their Western European and well even North American counter parts and how several cities can work as metropolitan areas, which are more viable as centers of economic regions cooperating and sharing tasks in order to create functional globally important regions. Today in Central Europe there is a lack in this, truly we can state that Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, Katowice and probably one of the few real cooperations the Centrope region Vienna-Brünn-Bratislava-Győr work as a true globally important economic region.
Yesterday I read the new Hungarian propasal for national growth, which is more of an analysis than a true plan and despite many of its valuable thoughts carrying it is not so easy without detailed road maps leading to the goals defined in the plan by 2015. The most valuable part of the plan is the one with a detailed discription of the cities of Hungary putting them into a hierarchical order according to their economic and governmental status. The report or analysis (I must stress the fact that it is called a plan, but truly it can not be defined as one for it only sets out some vague goals and determines even more vaguely what there is to be done to achieve those goals) also contains maps and discriptions recording the geographical distribution of the top 200 businesses in Hungary, the top 200 developing businesses as well as geographical distribution by economic fileds.
Building on this in the plan there is also are very valuable part where it mentions and briefly describes the creation of an economic area in the Carpathian Basin. The main idea being that cross-border business hubs should be created and supported in order to boost the Hungarian economy and of course that of the whole region. Especially mentioned are:
- the Centrope: Vienna-Bratislava-Győr triangle, which I might add also should and naturally does contain Brno and is a true ractangle and probably the only already functional cross-border are with a strong auto industry.
- the Szeged-Timisoara region is also mentioned, which would and could also include Subotica (city in Serbia with almost 100.000 inhabitants barely didn't make my list) and Arad.
- the Debrecen-Oradea region, the two cities being very close to each other on two sides of the Hungarian Romanian border.
- the Szombathely-Zalaegerszeg-Graz region, which can be also seen as a southern extension to the Centrope region since the most important here is also the auto industry and mechatronics.
- the Miskolc-Koisce region in Northern Hungary and Eastern Slovakia, respectively the two cities are very close together in fact part of Kosice's agglomeration has reached the Hungarian border. The two cities are traditional industrial centers in both countries.
- last, but not least the Pécs-Osijek region, which is the only region mentioned here where one of the poles of the region is not in the EU, but with Croatia joining the EU in 2013 new cooperation and better opportunities could arise here as well.
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| Map of Western European industrial belt and its Central European counterpart. |
Yesterday I read the new Hungarian propasal for national growth, which is more of an analysis than a true plan and despite many of its valuable thoughts carrying it is not so easy without detailed road maps leading to the goals defined in the plan by 2015. The most valuable part of the plan is the one with a detailed discription of the cities of Hungary putting them into a hierarchical order according to their economic and governmental status. The report or analysis (I must stress the fact that it is called a plan, but truly it can not be defined as one for it only sets out some vague goals and determines even more vaguely what there is to be done to achieve those goals) also contains maps and discriptions recording the geographical distribution of the top 200 businesses in Hungary, the top 200 developing businesses as well as geographical distribution by economic fileds.
Building on this in the plan there is also are very valuable part where it mentions and briefly describes the creation of an economic area in the Carpathian Basin. The main idea being that cross-border business hubs should be created and supported in order to boost the Hungarian economy and of course that of the whole region. Especially mentioned are:
- the Centrope: Vienna-Bratislava-Győr triangle, which I might add also should and naturally does contain Brno and is a true ractangle and probably the only already functional cross-border are with a strong auto industry.
- the Szeged-Timisoara region is also mentioned, which would and could also include Subotica (city in Serbia with almost 100.000 inhabitants barely didn't make my list) and Arad.
- the Debrecen-Oradea region, the two cities being very close to each other on two sides of the Hungarian Romanian border.
- the Szombathely-Zalaegerszeg-Graz region, which can be also seen as a southern extension to the Centrope region since the most important here is also the auto industry and mechatronics.
- the Miskolc-Koisce region in Northern Hungary and Eastern Slovakia, respectively the two cities are very close together in fact part of Kosice's agglomeration has reached the Hungarian border. The two cities are traditional industrial centers in both countries.
- last, but not least the Pécs-Osijek region, which is the only region mentioned here where one of the poles of the region is not in the EU, but with Croatia joining the EU in 2013 new cooperation and better opportunities could arise here as well.
 |
| Map of possible cross-border hubs. |
Dec 2, 2011
Merkozy
Merkozy is the new nickname given to Angela Merkel the Chancellor of the German Federal Republic and to Nicholas Sarkozy the President of the French Republic following the path of Brangelina and TomKat... It is of course a journalistic tool of cynically expressing that the duo formed by the leaders of the largest economies of the Eurozone are the ones dominating the talks on the euro crisis and who are practically dominating also the EU politics as a whole.
Of course everyone is waiting for the results of next weeks European Council meeting and looking forward to what solutions the two leaders will come up with. Today in a speech in the Bundestag Merkel shared some of her thoughts including an opposition to Eurobonds, the preferance of treaty modification over a new treaty within the Eurozone and that she believes the automatic mechanism of sanctioning states would be the best solution done by European institutions. She highlighted that it is important not to create a further gap between Eurozone and non-Euro EU Member States. Which is not only a good news for the UK, but also for states of the Euro Plus Pact and other states that may later wish to introduce the euro as a currency such as Hungary for example. She also addressed claims of a German dominated Europe saying that their actions are not to dominate, but in the spirit of Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. She will discuss her plans with Sarkozy on Monday in Paris.
Also today David Cameron talked about his meeting with Nicholas Sarkozy stating he doesn't believe a treaty change is needed and if it will go through he will try to make sure that UK interests are taken into account. Well I do not believe that if a new treaty is created within the Eurozone that the UK diplomacy can do much. It is of course a possibility if there is a treaty change for the UK to try to block it, but I think that the UK's approach to the talks so far were very distant due naturally to the fact that it has stayed away from the euro.
Nov 30, 2011
EU ambassadors listen to HvR
http://consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/126426.pdf this is a link to the speech Herman van Rompuy gave to the conference of heads of delegations of the EU delegations. It is a very interesting speech and one that defines important aspects of European foreign policy.
Still I would like to share my view that on an general basis it is the EU's best tool (or weapon) what the President of the European Council refers back to time to time the economic power that the EU represents being the world's largest economy. He mentioned this in connection with Russia and the Eastern policy of the Union as well as in connection with the shift to the Pacific area. More interestingly when speaking of the BRICS he mentioned that it would be important to engage these countries in other global issues. In connection to that and to the economic power being the strongest tool in the hands of the EU I believe that the EU should in fact start showing a lead on the international scene in public diplomacy (that is also in front of tv cameras) in certain issues. We know for a fact that some EU Member States are leaders in issues such as climate change (mentioned by HvR) so probably as a stronghold the common foreign policy of the EU should be agressive enough to label global issues as European initiatives, which is of course a step necessary for the EU to be seen as a strong actor and not as an actor whose currency might fall apart and whose direction towards coherence can be questionable.
I have seen a very good exampl of this and a very natural one in UNESCO where the EU and its Member States play a very important and active role. Here the EU is the only non-state party to the 2005 Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions this is a great example of a European issue which can be strongly expressed on a global international level. I think more of this is needed for international actors and simply for the global view to change on the EU from a large economy to a real actor. The job has begun and I must agree with HvR that the work in the past two years has been enorm and the development is significant despite or thanks to major global happenings forming the foreign policy agenda (economic crisis, Arab spring, natural disasters).
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