Slovenians And Central European Concepts

Slovenians And Central European Concepts Presented by: Prof. Dr. Lazarević Date: 23 May 2024 Overview - 1. Thinking of Central Europe - Observations - 2. The concept of Central Europe - 3. A nation in the middle of Europe - 4. The challenges of the European Union - 5. Conclusion Thinking of Central Europe Observations - How to think Central Europe? - In Habsburg monarchy • - 1. Narrow consideration (preoccupation with national existence) In Yugoslavia • 1. Division into 4 countries (Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Hungary) • 2. Unification of ethnic territory with Europe integration Many shapes of thinking Central Europe - Danubian union (Šušteršič) - Pan-European concept (Gosar) - Central Europe through economic flows (Nagode) - Renewal through crisis (Terseglav) Danubian union - Ivan Šušteršič (leading politician) - In a way substitution for Habsburg monarchy (October 1918) - Union of Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Romania - Confederation upon Swiss model common market, monetary and custom union with (possible) common foreign policy - - Danubian confederation as proto- Intermedium concept Central Europe Through Economic Flows - Črtomir Nagode a construction expert and politician - Slovenian territory as a crossroads of European transport routes - Geography and traffic flows dictated economic cooperation and created a single economic space. - From the standpoint of the Slovenian (Yugoslav) area, this was Central Europe Pan-European concept - The support for the pan-European movement/concept was widespread - The solution to the Slovenian question is European integration - After initial hesitation supported by the state authorities - Andrej Gosar: • 1. Any attempts to change the borders as very dangerous, threat to peace; • 2. Cooperation (Pan-Europe) instead of conflicts Europe - Renewal Through Crisis - Franc Terseglav - journalist - Gradual decline or crisis of Europe? - Europe as place of conflicting interest - Conflict of interest as a path to compromise - Compromise as a new synthesis to overcome the crisis - Compromise as a mood of operation Edvard Kocbek (1904–1981) And The Concept Of Central Europe - Edvard Kocbek - a highly educated young philosopher, thinker, and poet - In 1940 he imagined Central Europe as: • 1. Special and original area between the European East and West, where at least fifteen different nations lived. • 2. Ethnic and cultural diversity that had been the misfortune due to inability to recognize diversity as a value in the broader European context. • 3. Due to their fragmentation, they had become the sphere of various imperialisms • 4. The opposing principles of unconditional national sovereignty and the internationalization of economic cooperation - 1. How to overcome the economic disintegration of the Central European area while preserving the principles of national sovereignty in the field of each nation's cultural development in 1940? - 2. Solution Central European federation (CEF) - protecting Central Europe from Germany and Soviet Union - 3. CEF as common market (internationalization of economy) - 4. CEF as union of highly autonomous regions/countries (national sovereignty in cultural development) - 5. The partial transfer of sovereignty in the economic and political spheres to the federation. - 6. Slovenia as core central European country - 7. European integration as concept to overcome state borders on Slovene ethnic territory - 8. In 1940s idealistic Lambert Ehrlich (1878-1942) And A Nation In The Middle Of Europe - Lambert Erlich - priest and university professor • 1. Imagining the post war future during Second World War • 2. Slovenes subjected to violent occupational regimes which threatened the very existence of nation. • 3. framework for the post-war regime in Central Europe. • 4. to transform the Central European territory in such a manner that it could withstand the pressure of German expansionism and the looming danger of the communist Soviet Union (Intermedium!) • - 5. The concept (partly) excluded the existing state organization 1. The new state would include Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs, and Hungarians. Optionally, Bulgarians, Romanians, and Greeks - 2. Ehrlich's plan was written from the viewpoint of Slovenians, their historical experience and the need to secure their own identity in the broader international environment. - 3. The proposal was a kind of a synthesis of the various ideas that circulated in the European space as well as among the Slovenian intellectual community. - 4. Ehrlich's plan called for a major reorganization of the international order in Central Europe and was certainly utopian in this regard - 5. Not very developed France Bučar (1923–2015) and the challenges of the European Union - France Bučar - university professor and dissident - 1. Challenges of EU in 2003 - • Economic regulation (the functioning of capitalism!), • Globalization, • The changing role of the nation-state 2. The main purpose of the common market was to create suitable conditions for levelling the playing field between Europe, America, and the Far East - 3. A European political mechanism was necessary to enable criteria that capitalism could not satisfy on its own and which, due to the rapid globalization, could no longer be regulated by the nation- states. - 1. EU erected a barrier to the direct influence of global capitalism. - 2. Within EU the capitalist logic continued as the logic of a natural system that would equally discriminate in favor of the more powerful, especially against the weaker national economies, individual companies, and directly against smaller consumers - 3. whether the European Union should merely be a European economic fortress or whether it saw its role also in the protection of its members' other social interests - 4. nation-states had to be brought together into a community through which the participating nations would be able to achieve the goals that were only possible to accomplish together - 5. the crucial issue was finding a balance between the interests of the larger and smaller member states, how to enable the development of small nations as district entities - 6. It was a question of coexistence or domination of the large countries within the EU and therefore a question of democracy and peace Conclusion - 1. Slovene position within Central Europe determinate the concepts of European integration - 2. As early as 1940, Edvard Kocbek had formulated the basic principle of the Slovenian outlook on the European integration processes: to ensure smooth national development through integration into a supranational community as well as internationalize the economy to achieve a greater scale through an open economy. - 3. Small national spaces (with protectionist policies) simply could not deliver anything comparable. With this emphasis, Kocbek was far ahead of his contemporaries as well as successors, who paid much more attention to the political and cultural aspects - 4. Any transfer of a part of the national sovereignty to a broader (state) community was legitimate if it ensured not only the preservation but also the development of the Slovenian economic and cultural identity.