Climate or rural development policy?

Being heavily energy dependent, it is not much of a surprise that Europe pays special attention to reducing the use of fossil fuels. Each one of the ten new member states is characterized by relatively low per capita energy consumption and relatively low energy efficiency, and the share of renewables in their energy mix tends to be low, too. The paper examines the problem when policy measures create a decrease in environmental capital instead of an increase. In this case it hardly seems justified to talk about environmental protection. The authors describe a case of a Hungarian rapeseed oil mill which would not be of too much interest on its own but given that almost all similar plants went bankrupt, there are some important lessons to learn from its survival. The enterprise the authors examined aimed at establishing a micro-regional network. They completed a brown-field development to establish a small plant on the premises of a former large agricultural cooperative. By partnering with the former employees and suppliers of the sometime cooperative, they enjoyed some benefits which all the other green-field businesses focusing on fuel production could not. The project improved food security, energy security and population retention as well.

International environmental and development policy cooperation and the transition process of the Central and Eastern European countries

The political and economic changes in countries of the Central and Eastern European region during the recent two decades had significant implications on their participation in international environmental policy-making. These changes were motivated by the changing international political priorities and economic interests, realization of their part in the "common but differentiated responsibility" for the global environmental processes and the relatively modest capacities for international development cooperation. The situation of these countries was acknowledged by the international community by granting specific provisions to these "economies in transition" in international environmental policy mechanisms. In spite of the rapidly diverging external relations of the various groups of these countries, to some extent and in different forms the transition phase is still prevailing and has its effect on the ongoing international environmental negotiations. The paper describes the background of these changes, demonstrates the specific provisions for these countries that made possible their participation in the common efforts to tackle the emerging global and regional environmental problems by acceding to the relevant international mechanisms.

Az Európai Unió nemzetközi fejlesztéspolitikája előtt álló kihívások és válaszok (EU’s international development policy – challenges and answers)

A tanulmány röviden áttekinti, hogy milyen kihívások érték az elmúlt években az EU nemzetközi fejlesztéspolitikáját, és milyen válaszokat adott ezekre a Közösség. A Bizottság által 2011-ben kiadott Agenda for Change című zöld könyv a közös fejlesztéspolitikát erőteljesebb normatív alapokra igyekszik helyezni és a demokrácia és jó kormányzás támogatását teszi az EU egyik fő célkitűzéséve a fejlődő országokban. Mindez a gyakorlatban erőteljesebb kondicionalitást és szelektivitást fog jelenteni az európai segélyezésben. _____ The paper briefly reviews the challenges that the EU’s international development policy faced in recent years and the answers the Community has provided to these. A green paper published by the Commission in 2011, the Agenda for Change attempts to place development policy on a stronger normative basis by making the support of good governance and democracy one of the main goals of the EU in developing countries. In practice, this will mean stronger conditionality and greater selectivity in EC aid.

The Future of EU Cohesion Policy. Endogenous Development – Added Value of Intervention – Regulatory Frameworks

The successful operation of the regional development – or cohesion – policy of the European Union has a strategic importance from the point of view of the whole integration process. Strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion and decreasing disparities between member states and regions are not only one of the main priorities of the integration, but at the same time these are justified expectations of the people living in the member states of the union. The cohesion transfers should be spent on those factors which have the biggest contribution to the improvement of development prospects and competitiveness in the given regions. Theories on regional development have controversial conclusions about the long-term formation of development disparities. However, it has become evident that successful development policies are based on endogenous factors, innovation and well-functioning institutions. After examining theoretical considerations and regional disparities the study analyses the impacts of EU regional policy and evaluates the main elements of the proposed regulatory frameworks for the period 2014-2020.

Hungarian International Development Cooperation: Context, Stakeholders and Performance

This paper explores the domestic and international context of Hungary's emerging international development policy. Specifically, it looks at three factors that may influence how this policy operates: membership in the European Union (EU) and potential ‘Europeanization’, Hungary's wider foreign policy strategy, and the influence of domestic stakeholders. In order to uncover how these factors affect the country's international development policy, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the main stakeholders. The main conclusions are: (1) While accession to the EU did play a crucial role in restarting Hungary's international development policy, the integration has had little effect since then; (2) international development policy seems to serve mainly Hungary's regional strategic foreign policy and economic interests, and not its global development goals; and (3) although all the domestic development stakeholders are rather weak, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) still seems to play a dominating role. Convergence with European requirements and best practices is, therefore, clearly hindered by foreign policy interests and also by the weakness of non- governmental stakeholders.

Social resources in local development. Conference proceedings

It was the intention of the Institute for Sociology and Social Policy at the Corvinus University Budapest in collaboration with the University of Trento to reflect the breadth of local development studies in the conference it staged in June 2011 ‘Social Resources in Local Development’. The event was in the framework of ‘Efficient Government, Professional Public Administration and Regional Development for a Competitive Society’ which is part of the TAMOP Project 4.2.1/B-09/1/KMR – 2010-0005 (Social and Cultural Resources Development Policies and Local Development Research Workshop led by Professor Zoltán Szántó). All the papers which feature in this volume were presented at the workshop. The research activity behind these papers (with the exception of Blokker) was supported by the aforementioned TAMOP project. The event was attended by a range of international participants including Erasmus Mundus students from the University of Trento and Corvinus students taking the MA in Local Development. It is hoped that this publication of conference proceedings highlights some current and key issues and controversies in local development research and academic debate.

Metropolitan Tourism Experience Development. Selected studies from the Tourism Network Workshop of the Regional Studies Association, held in Budapest, Hungary, 2015

On January 28-30, 2015 Corvinus University of Budapest hosted the latest workshop of the Regional Studies Association’s Tourism Research Network. The event had been held previously in Izmir, Aalborg, Warsaw, Östersund, Antalya, Leeds and Vila-seca Catalonia. The aim of the RSA research network is to examine tourism diversity from the perspective of regional development in order to identify current challenges and opportunities in a systematic manner, and hence provide the basis for a more well-informed integration of tourism in regional development strategies and move beyond political short-termism and buzzword fascination. In the frame of the network a series of workshops have been organised from various topics of destination management till rural tourism.

Reluctant Donors? The Europeanization of International Development Policies in the New Members

The EU played an instrumental role re-starting the international development policies in Central and Eastern European member states, but questions remain about how far this policy area has been Europeanized since accession. Focusing on the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the paper investigates why the new donors have been reluctant to adopt the EU’s development acquis more fully. The paper traces the process of the EU’s development policy rulemaking and subsequent national rule implementation to understand the socialization opportunities these processes offer. The conclusions reveal thrre reasons why socialization has been weak: (1) perceptions among the new member states on the development acquis’ procedural legitimacy; (2) low domestic resonance with the development acquis; and (3) inconsistencies in the activities of norm entrepreneurs. The paper contributes to our understanding of development policy in the EU, in particular how decision making takes place within the Council and its Working Groups post enlargement.

Az erősödő állami szerepvállalás értékelése a magyarországi elektronikus hírközlő hálózati fejlesztésekben (Evaluation of the increasingstate’s rolein the electronic communications network development in Hungary)

Az elektronikus hírközlő hálózat rohamszerű fejlesztésének igénye az elektronikus szolgáltatások széles körű elterjedésével az állami döntéshozókat is fejlesztéspolitikai koncepciók kidolgozására és azok végrehajtására ösztönzi. Az (információs) társadalom fejlődése és az ennek alapjául szolgáló infokommunikációs szolgáltatások használata alapvetően függ a szélessávú infrastruktúra fejlesztésétől, az elektronikus hírközlő hálózat elérésének lehetőségétől. Az állami szerepvállalási hajlandóság 2011-től kezdődően jelentősen megnőtt az elektronikus hírközlési területen. Az MVM NET Zrt. megalapítása, a NISZ Zrt. átszervezése, a GOP 3.1.2-es pályázat és a 4. mobilszolgáltató létrehozásának terve mind mutatják a kormányzat erőteljes szándékát a terület fejlesztésére. A tanulmányban bemutatásra kerül, hogy az állam milyen beavatkozási eszközökkel rendelkezik az elektronikus hírközlő hálózat fejlesztésének ösztönzésére. A szerző ezt követően a négy, jelentős állami beavatkozás elemzését végzi el annak vizsgálatára, hogy megfelelő alapozottsággal született-e döntés az állami szerepvállalásról. _____ With the widespread use of the Internet, the need for the rapid development of the digital communication networks has prompted government policy makers also to conceptualize and implement development policy. The advancement of the (information) society and the use of information communication technology as a prerequisite of it are fundamentally determined by the development of broadband infrastructure and whether broadband access to the digital telecommunication network is available. The propensity of the government to play a bigger role in the field of electronical communication has increased significantly from 2011. The setup of MVM NET Zrt. / Hungarian Electricity NET Ltd./, the realignment of NISZ Zrt. / National Info communication Services Company Limited by Shares - NISZ Ltd./, the GOP 3.1.2. tender and the plan to enable a new, i.e. the fourth mobile network operator to enter the market all indicate the robust intention of the government to develop this field. The study shows the tools of government intervention for the incentive of the development of the electronical communication network. Then the author analyses the four main government interventions to examine whether the decision on the role of the state was adequately well-founded.

A temporary loss of pace or the "middle income trap" - a commentary on the tasks for Hungary's economic development

The latest Hungarian economic growth data, though favourable, do not let us forget that in the longer term growth is weak compared to the preceding period – as well as to the performance of the East-Central European region, which is more dynamic than the European average. In order to make sense of the past decade’s relative loss of pace and lay the foundations for future development policy, it is worth placing Hungary’s case in the context of the slowing tempo typical of middle-income countries. The economic development policies currently pursued by the government are aimed at increasing output in the processing industry, and by extension exports, while relevant international experience advises that it is the higher value-added activities of the global value chain, particularly business services, which should be developed further. In this way real wages and income levels could be increased, and the economy would be less exposed to the fluctuations of international cycles.

Sustainability, creativity and innovation in project management – Model development for assessing organizational performance through projects

Today a number of studies are published on how organizational strategy is developed and how organizations contribute to local and regional development through the realization of these strategies. There are also many articles dealing with the success of a project by identifying the criteria and the factors that influence them. This article introduces the project-oriented strategic planning process that reveals how projects contribute to local and regional development and demonstrates the relationship between this approach and the regional competitiveness model as well as the KRAFT concept. There is a lot of research that focuses on sustainability in business. These studies argue that sustainability is very important to the success of a business in the future. The Project Excellence Model that analyses project success does not contain the sustainability criteria; the GPM P5 standard consists of sustainability components related either to the organizational level. To fill this gap a Project Sustainability Excellence Model (PSEM) was developed. The model was tested by interviews with managers of Hungarian for-profit and non-profit organizations. This paper introduces the PSEM and highlights the most important elements of the empirical analysis.

Aszimmetriák az Európai Unión belül (Assimetries within the European Union)

A centrum-periféria kapcsolatok elemzése az Európai Unióra is kiterjeszthető. Az integrációs folyamatban jól elemezhetőek a bourdeiu-i tőkeformák, ezek egymásra történő átváltása, a gazdasági és politikai aszimmetriák kölcsönhatása. E kölcsönös kapcsolatokban továbbra is a gazdasági viszonyok meghatározottsága érvényesül. A világgazdasági válság felszínre hozta a történelmi aszimmetriákat, amelyeket a korábbi neoliberális politikák tovább mélyítettek. Az Unión belüli periferális térségekre a válság különbözőképpen hatott. E hatások semlegesítésére többnyire a megszorító gazdaságpolitikákat alkalmazzák. Továbbra is hiányzik azonban egy, a minőségi s nem mennyiségi szempontokat hangsúlyozó fejlesztési politika. Egy ilyen megközelítés a strukturális, intézményi vonatkozásokat erősítené, s ezzel járulna hozzá a periféria termelési, forgalmi, elosztási képességeinek fokozásához. _____ Analysis of centre-periphery relations can be extended to the European Union as well. The capital forms by Bourdieu, their inter-changeability, mutual effects of economic and political asymmetries could be analysed well in the integration process. In these mutual relations economic relations still play the dominant role. The global economic crisis has brought to the surface historical asymmetries, further aggravated by earlier neo-liberal economic policies. Peripheral regions within the Union have been affected in different ways. In order to neutralise these effects austerity measure have been implemented. However, a development policy, emphasising quality and not only quantitative aspects, is still missing. Such an approach would strengthen structural and institutional elements, further enhancing production, trade, and distribution capabilities of the periphery.

Action oriented futures studies in Hungary

The significant social changes and unstable social–economic processes we are undergoing require more participation and more future oriented grassroots activity both in designing the possible future alternatives and in the actions for the realization of them. Action oriented futures studies and participatory futures studies are in close connection, because orientation towards actions and participation of non-professionals can be strengthened by their mutual interdependence in futures work. This study gives—as examples—summaries of four Hungarian case studies using participatory futures methods: one case from the field of vocational training, two cases concerning regional development, and one about national social–economic development. Our experience shows that such selected groups have evaluated the present issues in their environments as well as the closer and broader regional issues in authentic ways. The future alternatives that were outlined regarding the future of vocational training, acceptable future alternatives of domestic social–economic development, and future living conditions of a smaller settlement and in a larger town, reflected obligation, responsibility and personal interest. That non-professionals lack sufficient future orientation, and do not see possibilities to take serious actions for the future is a read problem. Fortunately, it seems that the future and action oriented attitude of the individuals might be further developed by the use of partnership education.