Hungary and the European Union: The political implications of societal security promotion

Abstract

Enlighten -Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Hungary and the European Union: The Political Implications of Societal Security Promotion Eamonn Butler AbstractHungary's constitutional commitment to support kin-nationals beyond its borders (nation policy) has been a central feature of its post-1989 foreign policy and highlights a particularly important national security concern -the societal security of national identity, culture, language and tradition. This article examines Hungary's societal security concerns and the policy methods it utilises, including its EU membership and the promotion of minority rights at the European level, to help combat these concerns.It is suggested that Hungary has found it somewhat difficult to balance its societal security policy objective with internal economic demands on its welfare system and external foreign policy objective to maintain good neighbourly relations. This article also notes that Hungary's attempts to Europeanise, or rather 'EU-ise', minority and ethnic rights issues as a means to enhance societal security for the Hungarian nation has certain political consequences for the EU. This suggests that societal security provision is an issue that cannot be overlooked when trying to understand the longer-term implications of EU eastern enlargement. KeywordsHungary, European Union, Enlargement, Societal Security, Minority RightsThe author would like to thank Laura Cashman, Mary Heimann, Jon Oldfield and David Smith for their reflections on and suggestions for improving this article. Special thanks also go to Laura Cram for her early guidance and advice on research, developing ideas and writing style; without which this article would never have been written. interests benefit from the developing Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP) and the implied military security guarantee of EU membership, which suggests that even though there is no legal or actual basis of guaranteed support from other EU members for a fellow member state that had come under attack, it is highly unlikely that the union, as a whole, would not provide some form of military support. These are undoubtedly important rationales and their place within the literature on EU accession is not being questioned. However, it is suggested here that these dominant rationales do not allow for a complete picture of the EU eastern enlargement process. By focusing solely on these dominant or established national interest rationale sectors, other national interest-led driving forces of accession are neglected. Therefore, any implications these may have for the individual member states, as well as for the enlargement process or the development of EU policy or the EU as an organisation, may be overlooked. Using the Copenhagen School multi-sector approach as a framework for analysis it is possible to identify societal security as one such additional, national interest-led issue.Societal security is defined within security studies literature as the 'sustainabilit...

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