Part II
Hungary
Mrs. V. Móra - Country Consultant of Milieukontakt
Oost-Europa
Budapest, 20 December 1995
Historical development
The Hungarian green movement is a booming movement and has had
enormous growth since the political changes, beginning in 1990.
In the early part of the movement, most organizations of the
movement were new, inexperienced and poor. Organizations were
looking to the West for support, and even when it came to mind,
there was no capacity for East-East cooperation. Furthermore
the long separation between East and West made East-West cooperation
the first priority for many NGOs. Now, nearly 6 years later, more
and more organizations are finding out that Western experience
is not applicable to the situation in CEE.
East-East cooperation in Hungary
The focus of the Hungarian green movement is towards national
problems. They are busy enough with the Hungarian environmental
problems. Most of the time, East-East cooperation, and even East-West
cooperation, is not a priority. Cooperation is definitely not
an issue for Hungarian NGOs. The exception, is the good relationship
between Hungarian and Romanian NGOs, who were supported by Hungarian
groups since the beginning of the changes in Romania. The reason
for this is the historically strong ties with the Hungarian minority
in Romania.
Internal cooperation, within the country is more common. Often
there are yearly national NGO gatherings. Unfortunately, Hungarian
environmental NGOs work in a hostile atmosphere, and the individual
survival of the groups costs much time and energy. If there is
some capacity for cooperation left, the first option will be internal
cooperation.
Reasons for East-East cooperation
East-East cooperation is especially important, and is actually
taking place, in regards to transboundary and border problems.
Another advantage of East-East cooperation is that NGOs can learn
from each other, for example Ukrainian and Bulgarian groups can
learn from Hungarian NGOs. There is also a mutual belief among
NGOs that CEE countries have a lot in common, especially historically,
a common communistic history, and a shared cultural background.
If there was strong cooperation between the Eastern NGO's, together,
it might be a good way to join the European Union (EU) and would
be an interesting topic for East-East cooperation among environmental
NGOs in CEE. Until now there were no Hungarian environmental NGOs
working on the EU topic, but in the future, this may be an interesting
topic.
It seems to be a fact that funding organizations in the West
and East, prefer to give money for East-East cooperative projects.
The REC certainly has since making East-East cooperation
a priority and often NGO's receive bigger grants if they cooperate.
Of course, fake cooperation between NGO's is one of the consequences.
Problems / Obstacles
Presently many NGOs are focusing on East-West cooperation, if
they think of cooperation at all. Hungarian NGOs attention is
centered on national problems, and they are busy enough with them.
East-East cooperation is just out of their scope. There are several
reasons for lack of East-East cooperation. Historically ties between
the Eastern countries were forced during communist times and since
the break down of Iron curtain it's been the wish of many NGO's
to go to Western countries. The Hungarian environmental movement
is more developed than that of many Eastern countries, so it is
not that strategic for Hungarian NGO's to cooperate with them.
Additionally, people have not been taught to think that cooperation
is an option. Hungarian NGOs are very keen on democracy and
independence. The environmental movement is very diverse and the
groups want to keep this diversity. At the moment this feeling
is even stronger since the Hungarian Ministry of the Environment
is trying to 'force' the NGOs to work together with one spokesperson
and they are very much against it.
Furthermore environmental NGOs still lack the capacity for establishing
and maintaining East-East cooperation. There are language, time
and money problems. There are few English speakers and most the
time they are already busy with national problems and East-West
cooperation. When there are no language problems, as in the case
with Hungarian-Romanians, cooperation is easier to establish.
Cultural differences plays a role as well. For example Bulgarian
NGOs are much more hierarchical and ruled by academics, much more
so than the Hungarian groups. When they want to cooperate, they
both have to overcome these differences and learn how to deal
with each other. This is a process that takes time and information.
Cultural-historical problems still exist and there are still
persisting thoughts of nationalism in the CEE countries. Stereotypes
for people in neighboring countries are often considered the
reality.
Necessary features for East-East cooperation
The issues on which the partners are working should be border
issues or common problems. NGOs need to know other groups working
on the same topic, they need to have communication means, experiences
to share and know how to deal with other cultures. Good relationships
between cooperating countries is necessary, so in some cases,
historical prejudices need to be solved. The environmental NGO
community in Hungary is maturing and developing, but maybe the
natural development needs a little push towards more East-East
cooperation.
Promotion and future of East-East cooperation
East-East cooperation should be promoted, but shouldn't be forced.
If you enforce this cooperation too strictly there will be a reaction
against it, it will be contra productive. Like with other topics,
the REC should look more to the development of the movement itself
and take the expressed needs as a starting point instead of projecting
its own wishes on the NGO community. An image change at the REC
is needed, since a lot of groups consider the REC as a huge, Western,
bureaucratic and inaccessible organization. The information from
the REC should be more accessible on the question of East-East
cooperation or about other NGOs working on the same topic. The
REC may want to consider creating a summary of the NGO directory
categorized by NGOs per topic and those that are interested in
cooperation.
Informal gatherings, conferences and personal exchange programs
will promote East-East cooperation, because people can meet each
other, get to know each other and finally appoint something for
cooperation of their NGOs in the future. The advantages of East-East
cooperation need to become clear and known by the groups.
With time, NGO's will be compelled to cooperate, since the importance
and necessity of cooperation is becoming more valuable.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * BEYOND BORDERS - SIDE REPORT * HUNGARY
