Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)
2003 / 2. szám - EURÓPA - Teszler B. István: A külső fejlesztési alapok mint az Európai Unió globális politikájának eszközei - az integrációs érettség tükrében
Résumé and - at the same time - the global nature of co-operation and making the general, foreign and defence policy objectives more closely related. The former socialist countries - 8 out of the 10 new members including Hungary have exercised the different forms of international development co-operation since the 1950s. Depending on the ruling ideological and political slogans and the status of the East-West conflict, these sometimes took the form of solidarity with and giving aids to the international proletariat (within the camp), were manifested in the form of technical and scientific co-operation (with the „progressive", non-aligned countries as well), or quasi enterprises and projects (for example: Latin-America, North-Africa, India), or were purely business activities during the period of abundance in petroleum- dollars following the sudden increase of oil prices (Nigeria, Iran, the Arab-Gulf). While in the West, a whole series of government (USAID, GTZ, NORAD) and church aid and development organisations and NGOs were established for the purpose, Tesco- and Metrimpex-type foreign-trade companies had been in charge of these activities in this part of Europe. Some of the characteristic features of the developing countries were also typical of the „Second World" (this fact was even declared by Romania), developed know-how and technology was purchased by the Central-East European countries from the „Centre" (gaining the necessary hard- currency partly from business activities with the developing countries), their economies were inefficient and their experts were often delegated at dumping prices. All these, together with other elements (for example: structure of goods) characterised the ambivalent position of the „Second World" as these countries were related to the „Centre” with ties typical of the peripheries, whereas the relations with the developing countries were of imperialistic nature. The general public had a negativistic opinion about co-operation. It was experienced as a one-sided support of political emancipation with the prejudice of ,,we are also poor, why should we give even to them". Nevertheless, an undeniable positive feature of this co-operation was that during the years, thousands of foreign students could study in the „Second World" and a large number of experts had the opportunity to work in the developing countries, gaining extensive experience there. Due to the changes taking place in the 1990s, international co-operation was practically terminated in the former socialist countries. Co-operation and external development funds were not part of the harmonisation process, resulting in a number of political and institution-development tasks in this area. Even if we acknowledge the secondary importance of the issue we may say that the lack of readiness and capability for integration is probably the most visible in the area of co-operation. The article analyses the respective tasks and the political and comparative economical advantages of co-operation for the new Member States, not to speak about the measures and development tasks necessary for active participation in co-operation activities. 194 Külügyi Szemle
