One of the major research projects of The Institute of Advanced Study Kőszeg (iASK) focuses on the problems of Central Europe: Central Europe as an analytical concept and as a political reality. The Institute has recently published the Hungarian version of an, after 30 years rewritten version of a book about the region by the distinguished Austrian scholars and politicians, Emil Brix and Erhard Busek. Soon forthcoming is a work by three Hungarian social scientists: Iván Bába, Iván Gyurcsik and Csaba Kiss Gy. entitled: Central Europe with Visegrád eyes. These two publications will be discussed at a round table in the central building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at 4 p.m. on February 12, 2020. The event (co-organized by iASK and the Hungarian Council of the European Movement) will be moderated by the director of iASK) Ferenc Miszlivetz. Participants,  in addition to the authors,  include Catherine Horel  (Sorbonne) and Pál Hatos  (the National University of Public Service in Budapest).

Opening – Attila Pók vice-chairman, Hungarian Council of the European Movement

Introduction – Ferenc Miszlivetz director, iASK

Remarks on the occasion of the publication of the Hungarian version of the book by

• Catherine Horel historian, Paris-Sorbonne University

• Responses of Emil Brix (director – Diplomatic Academy of Vienna)

• Responses of Erhard Busek (former vice-chancellor of Austria, chairman – Institute of Danube Region and Central Europe)

Central Europe from a Visegrád Angle: a roundtable discussion with the authors of a book in preparation:

• Iván Bába former State Secretary, professor, National University of Public Service Budapest, senior researcher of iASK

• Iván Gyurcsík Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Csaba Kiss Gy. professor, HAS
• Moderator: Ferenc Miszlivetzsociologist, director, iASK

Date: 12 February 2020 4 p.m.

Venue: Budapest H-1051 Széchenyi tér 9. HAS Main Building 1st floor – Lecture Hall

Organizers: Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg (iASK) and the Hungarian Council of the European Movement

The event will be conducted in English and Hungarian with simultaneous translation and will be streamed on the Facebook page of iASK (https://www.facebook.com/iask.hungary).

Reframing Central Europe – A Prologue to the Hungarian edition of Mitteleuropa Revisited by Ferenc Miszlivetz (director of iASK)

This book, that readers can finally hold in their hands, is not without antecedents.

As early as in 1986, authors Emil Brix and Erhard Busek published another volume under the title Projekt Mitteleuropa, the fruit of an era of optimism. In this period the political arena began to reflect the impacts of Gorbachev’s reforms, and the winds of the new détente swept through the Central European region of the Soviet Empire. “Central Europe” was increasingly used as an umbrella term, an intellectual framework for cross-border cultural fermentation and political solidarity, driven and filled with the appeal by the desire and promise of overcoming existing regimes. Many of its actors, from István Borsody through Milan Kundera and lecturers involved in Hungary’s college movement to György Konrád, pondered upon the old and new meanings of this term. For the artists and revolting intellectuals of this region, Central Europe meant a common home and community in an alien world that had been imposed on them. (The whole article is HERE!)

About the Authors:

Emil Brix is an Austrian diplomat and historian. Starting in 1982, he worked for the Foreign Service of the Republic of Austria. From 1984 to 1986, he was a secretary of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), and from 1986 to 1989, he worked in the office of the federal minister for science and research, Hans Tuppy. Until early 2010, he was the director of the politico-cultural section of the foreign office. Between April 2010 and January 2015, Brix was the Austrian ambassador in London. On 19 January 2015, he assumed office as the Austrian ambassador in Moscow. Brix is also one of the leaders of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe. He became the director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 2017.

Erhard Busek received his doctor of law degree in 1963 at the University of Vienna. He began his carrier as a legal advisor of the parliamentarians of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), where he pursued his political career later. In 1989 he was appointed as Minister for Science and Research. In 1991 Busek became Chairman of the Austrian People’s Party and he served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria in the decisive period of Austria’s joining the EU. In 2000 and 2002 Busek was the Representative of the Austrian Government on EU-Enlargement. Between 2002-2008 he served as Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe. Currently, he is Chairman of the Institute of Danube Region and Central Europe, a member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation and member of the Advisory Board of IASK. He has written extensively on cultural, economic and political issues in South-East and Central Europe.