On September 18, the Danube Institute organized a joint book launch with Helena History Press, presenting Nation and Europe: In Lieu of Memoirs by Prof. Dr. János Martonyi. The venue of the book launch was the Villa Lónyay-Hatvany, headquarters of the Batthyány Lajos Foundation.

Dr. János Martonyi is Professor Emeritus, politician, and author of several books in the fields of international trade law, competition policy, European integration, Central European cooperation, and international relations. In 1998–2002, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. During his tenure, EU accession negotiations progressed and Hungary became a member of NATO. From 2010 to 2014, he again served as foreign minister in the second Orbán Government. Mr. Martonyi is Member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Hungary Foundation.

János Martonyi was Hungary’s most talented foreign minister of the post-Communist era. Not the least of his many contributions to his country’s security and well-being was to ensure that Hungary has remained firmly anchored to Europe, notwithstanding temporary flirtations elsewhere,”

wrote Sir Bryan Cartledge, Former British Ambassador to Hungary.

The volume Nation and Europe: In Lieu of Memoirs is not a memoir, rather a continuation of messages contained in Mr. Martonyi’s three previous books. Europe, Nation Rule of Law was published twenty-five years ago, in 1998. We and the World, his writings from 2002 to 2010, was published in 2015. Openness and Identity: Geopolitics, World Trade, Europe appeared in 2018. The titles encapsulate in brief the books’ otherwise generally and thematically varied content and their main findings. The ideas have evolved and adapted to changing circumstances over the decades, but their essence has remained unchanged.

“For all the changes the world undergoes, its essence, people, their most important communities, above all the nation, the sense and experience of national belonging, the history, values, moral norms of humanity and their origins do not change,”

writes Martonyi in the introduction.

The moderator of the book launch was John O’Sullivan, President and founder of the Danube Institute in Budapest, British conservative political commentator and journalist, who served as a Special Adviser and speechwriter to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Conversation partners were former colleagues and friends: Dr. István Stumpf, Professor of Constitutional Law and Political Science, former Chancellery Minister, former Justice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary; Dr. Péter Gottfried, Member of the Monetary Council of the Hungarian National Bank, former State Secretary for European Integration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. György Szapáry, Chief Advisor to the Governor of the Hungarian National Bank and former Ambassador of Hungary to the United States.

Representatives of the Hungarian and international public life, diplomatic corps, colleagues, students, and friends were also present. To name only a few of the distinguished guest: Prof. Tamás Sulyok, President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary; Prof. E Sylvester Vizi, former President of the Hungarian Academy of Science; Prof. Veronika Ádám, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Science; and Prof. Géza Jeszenszky, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and ambassador were present.

“The essays in this final volume Nation and Europe span Martonyi’s career as a lawyer, politician, and university professor and offer the Anglophone reader an insight into one of the finest political minds in Europe today,” said Prof. Dr. István Stumpf former Minister, Constitutional Judge and Commissioner in the book’s public launch.

“János Martonyi, the international lawyer, twice foreign minister, has been in the forefront of Hungary’s foreign policy since 1990, the formation of József Antall’s center-right government. His essays and speeches from 2018 to 2021, are a testimony of Hungary’s commitment to the West and European values, dedication to the Visegrád Cooperation, and to the rule of law. His message is timely, and extremely important both for the Hungarian and for the international public,” wrote Prof. Géza Jeszenszky, Hungary’s Foreign Minister from 1990–94.

The volume Nation and Europe: In Lieu of Memoirs has three main parts: Tributes, World Trade in the Grip of Geopolitics and the third one Still Europe… “These three perspectives remain present in further texts as well, serving as outlook and angles of perception, while the focus is extending to history and culture. The author is shaping a true picture of the interplay of national and European identities on the fields (sometimes battlefields) of law, history, and culture,” wrote Mr. Tibor Várady Harvard Unversity S.J.D.

The book’s cover shows a historical moment: On March 12, 1999, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Kavan, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi, and Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bronisław Geremek handed over their countries’ NATO accession documents to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.

The book was published by Helena History Press LLC, a privately funded publishing house in 2012, based in the United States. Its aim is to showcase scholarship about and from Central and Eastern Europe in English. The owner and founder, Dr. Katalin Kádár Lynn PhD, is also member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation. The volume is available at the Best Sellers bookshop https://bestsellers.hu/hu or via the publisher https://helenahistorypress.com

Report by Judit Szánthó; Photos: Hungary Today