The European Union: European Sky Shield Initiative

12 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union Reading Time:  6 minutes

Flag_of_Europe European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) is a project to build a ground-based integrated European air defense system which includes anti-ballistic missile capability. As of July 2023, nineteen European states participate in the initiative. ESSI is part of the Common Security and Defense Policy and as such is designed to complement and relieve the burden on NATO.   read more…

Veszprém in Hungary

27 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Capital of Culture Reading Time:  9 minutes

Veszprém Castle © Csendesmark/cc-by-sa-4.0

Veszprém Castle © Csendesmark/cc-by-sa-4.0

Veszprém (German: Weißbrunn) is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately 15 km (9 mi) north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county (comitatus or ‘megye’) of the same name.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Szeged

25 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  14 minutes

Reök Palace © Aron96/cc-by-sa-4.0

Reök Palace © Aron96/cc-by-sa-4.0

Szeged is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary. The Szeged Open Air (Theatre) Festival (first held in 1931) is one of the main attractions, held every summer and celebrated as the Day of the City on 21 May. Today’s Szeged is an important university town and a tourist attraction. The Szeged Symphony Orchestra (Szegedi Szimfonikus Zenekar) gives regular concerts at the Szegedi Nemzeti Színház. Szeged is situated near the southern border of Hungary, just to the south of the mouth of the Maros River, on both banks of the Tisza River, nearly in the centre of the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarian frontier with Serbia is just outside the town.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Nyíregyháza

24 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Town Hall on Main Square © David Sallay

Town Hall on Main Square © David Sallay

Nyíregyháza is a city in northeastern Hungary and the county capital of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. With a population of 118,001, it is the seventh-largest city in Hungary and the largest in Northern Hungary and the northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld). Its development has been ongoing since the 18th century, making it the economic and cultural center of the region. Nyíregyháza Zoo, with over 500 species, is recognized throughout Europe. From the 1960s, the city grew and developed quickly. Today, Nyíregyháza is one of the most prosperous cities in Hungary, serving as both a center of education and a popular tourist destination. After the fall of Communism, several foreign-owned companies appeared in the city. In the early 2000s, the largest employers were Hübner Flextronics Ltd. and Hirsch’s, but during the period of economic recession, many companies eliminated several thousand jobs. Today, the largest public companies are the Lego Manufacturing Kft. and the Michelin Hungaria Abroncsgyártó Kft., providing employment for about 3,000 people.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Pécs

23 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

County Hall of Baranya © Jan Mehlich/cc-by-sa-3.0

County Hall of Baranya © Jan Mehlich/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economic centre of Baranya County. Pécs is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Miskolc

22 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

City Centre © Rodrigo/cc-by-sa-4.0

City Centre © Rodrigo/cc-by-sa-4.0

Miskol is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the fourth largest city in Hungary (behind Budapest, Debrecen, and Szeged). It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern Hungary.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Visegrád

21 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Danube and Visegrad Castle © Civertan Grafikai Studio/cc-by-3.0

Danube and Visegrad Castle © Civertan Grafikai Studio/cc-by-3.0

Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary. It is north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend. It had a population of 1,864 in 2010. Visegrád is famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel. In 1991, the leading politicians of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland met here to form a periodical forum, the Visegrád Group, with an intentional allusion to the meeting centuries earlier in 1335. Visegrád was granted town privileges again in 2000.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary

20 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  12 minutes

View from Gellert Hill to the Danube in Budapest © flickr.com - Visions of Domino/cc-by-2.0

View from Gellert Hill to the Danube in Budapest © flickr.com – Visions of Domino/cc-by-2.0

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary is a landlocked country. Hungary has a population of 10 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the official language, is the world’s most widely spoken Uralic language, and among the few non-Indo-European languages widely spoken in Europe. Budapest is the country’s capital and largest city; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr.   read more…

Intermarium or Three Seas Initiative

3 February 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Three Seas initiative summit 2018 © Administration of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria/cc-by-2.5

Three Seas initiative summit 2018 © Administration of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria/cc-by-2.5

Intermarium (Polish: Międzymorze) was a geopolitical project conceived by politicians in successor states of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in several iterations, some of which anticipated the inclusion as well of other, neighboring states. The proposed multinational polity would have extended across territories lying between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, hence the name meaning “Between-Seas”.   read more…

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