Central European Regional Cooperation and European Integration-A Study of Hungary-

Sovereignty and International Relations

Abstract

The collapse of the Socialist system of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989-91 has precipitated reform of economic, political, social and security systems throughout Europe. In these circumstances, the idea of a “Central Europe”, has been restored not only as a historical concept, but also as an emerging economic, social and cultural system. At first, it took the form of the so called Pentagonale and the cooperation of three countries, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and Poland. At present, German economic influence is expanding to all these areas.
After the failure of the coup d'état of the Soviet Union in August 1991, the new “Central European” area is beginning to show signs of moving towards economic integration with the EC and towards cooperation with NATO in security policy. The leaders of the EC and NATO, who were irresolute at first, also began to establish positive relations with the new Central European countries toward the reorganization of the Eastern half of Europe after the decrease in power of the Soviet Union.
In this article, the author investigates Central European regional cooperation and its process to strengthen its relation with the EC and NATO. In this paper, the author wishes to investigate how the former East European countries could successfully develop a cooperative relationship with the rest of Europe; in order not to become an economic and military hinterland again, but to be, instead, an autonomous and independent entity, without division and exhaustion caused by internal nationalist fragmentation.