On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of György Schöpflin’s birth, the Minority Policy Research Group and the Research Institute for Politics and Government of Ludovika University of Public Service (LUPS) jointly organized the international conference entitled European and National Vision The event took place on 11th of November the university’s Széchenyi Hall.
The guests were greeted by Judit Galambos, the coordinator of the Minority Policy Research Group of LUPS, and then Rector Gergely Deli gave an opening speech. In his speech, the rector stated: the recently deceased historian, political scientist and former university professor György Schöpflin was both at home in England and (through his wife) in Estonia, but his homeland was Hungary. “In his last years, he was in close contact with our university through his academic work. His latest book, The European Polis, published by Ludovika University Press in 2021, is a critique of Europe’s contemporary institutions, as well as a passionate defence of the idea of Central Europe”.
Four goals
Iván Gyurcsík, head of the Minority Policy Research Group, highlighted four goals in connection with the event. On the one hand, to commemorate and symbolically place a wreath at the grave of the scientist who died three years ago; draw attention to the generous book donation of his wife, Piret Peiker, which made it possible to create the György Schöpflin book collection in the Central Library of LUPS. The third goal was to emphasize the importance of György Schöpflin’s intellectual heritage, books, writings, and critical thinking. Fourthly, the purpose of the event is to “navigate troubled waters” of the European Union, in connection with Central European cooperation, nations and national minorities.
Iván Gyurcsík briefly outlined the career of György Schöpflin. The renowned thinker came from a family of intellectuals from former northern part of the Hungarian Kingdom (today’s Slovakia), his grandfather, Aladár Schöpflin, was known as the editor of the magazine Nyugat (West), and his father, Gyula Schöpflin, was a translator and diplomat. György was born on November 24, 1939 in Budapest, he survived the siege of the capital as a child. He began his studies in Budapest, then moved to Stockholm, where his father was the ambassador of Hungary between 1949 and 1950. The family emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1950, and György lived there until he moved home in 2004. He graduated from the University of Glasgow and then continued his studies at the College of Europe in Bruges. After that, he started a career as a journalist, also working for the BBC. He later returned to academic life and taught at renowned European universities. Between 2004 and 2019, he was Member of the European Parliament in the Hungarian FIDESZ party. In 2019, he was awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit middle cross with a star.
Brilliant minds
Zsolt Németh, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Assembly, reminded in his opening presentation: this year is also the 90th anniversary of the birth of the philosopher Ernő Fábián and the 80th anniversary of the birth of the philosopher and thinker Roger Scruton. Zsolt Németh himself learned a lot from them, they largely determined the formation of his generation. Three knowledgeable, brilliant minds, three high-level intellects – characterized the aforementioned thinkers.
Zsolt Németh called the timing of the conference fortunate – and referred to the result of the American elections, which, he said, means a new world for Central and Eastern Europe and the Hungarian people across the border, and it is important to think about how the country takes advantage of the opportunity that is presented. Zsolt Németh also spoke in detail about the grand Hungarian strategy, and about the fact that there is no consensus on the assessment of East and West, the opinions on the decline of the latter and the rise of the former differ. The situation is similar in relation to the Union. Many people understand strategic autonomy in different ways. However, a successful strategy can only be based on accurate analysis, he added.
György Schöpflin was a member of the EP for 15 years. His work entitled The European polis is also worth using as a handbook – he pointed out, adding: when shaping the European vision, the perspectives of the minorities across the border must also come to the fore, just as the historian-political scientist he always kept it in mind.
An open-minded British scientist
The first session of the conference was entitled the European vision. The first presentation of this, called György Schöpflin’s Europe, was given by Ferenc Hörcher, head of Research Institute for Politics and Government of LUPS. As he said, György Schöpflin occupied a special place in the Hungarian émigré circle – with Mátyás Sárközi and the BBC’s Hungarian studio, Lóránt Czigány, László Péter and others – although, unfortunately, such classics as Arthur Koestler, Cs. László Szabó or Zoltán Szabó had already passed away by then. After that, the speaker talked about the stages of Schöpflin’s political thinking and the works related to them. From the 1970s he was an expert in nationality and minority studies, then in the 90s he was concerned with issues of identity and politics, and later, from 2010, the European Union. The turning points of his life and work are his emigration in 1950, the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, his EP representation between 2004 and 2019, and his return to his academic career from 2019. “He was an amalgamation of the educated citizen of Central Europe, the open-minded British scientist and the natural gentleman,” said Ferenc Hörcher.
Spiritual ground
Zdzisław Krasnodębski, former member of the European Parliament, in his presentation entitled “The peculiarity of the Europeanness of Central and Eastern Europe. Some comments on the thoughts of György Schöpflin”, he recalled personal memories of the conference’s namesake, highlighting his excellent “BBC” English and his exceptionally good network of contacts. The already cited work was mentioned again, which Zdzisław Krasnodębski considers outstanding in terms of the analysis of power structures of the EU. It is a well-understood, great theory – he said in relation to The European Polis.
John O’Sullivan, the president of the Danube Institute in Budapest, emphasized that they were on common intellectual ground and were friends with György Schöpflin, who supported him in the management of the institute. A good community person, good company, teacher – he described.
In the afternoon session discussing Central European, nation-state and national minority issues, Thomas Lorman, professor at University College London, Iván Bába, university professor, Serbian constitutional judge Tamás Korhecz, and Miklós Bakk, university lecturer at Sapientia Hungarian University in Transylvania, were animated by European György Schöpflin, his thoughts and vision concerning nation-state and national minority issues.
At the end of the English-language conference, there was an opportunity to visit the “Schöpflin legacy” book collection donated to the Central Library of LUPS in November 2023.
