Hungary has held the EU-chair

Observers in Brussels usually say that a new member country actually finishes the accession process once it has left its first acting presidency behind. State secretary Győri agrees with this statement, as she said while she was taking time off from the dinner of the EU summit meeting to come over to the festival. ’We try to bring you colours, sounds, tastes, a little slice from Hungary’ she said in her opening speech. Responding to our question she added that the many-many nights and extra hours spent working during the EU-presidency have born fruit. She said they could prove that they were able to chair meetings, organise and manage the work to be done, and hammer out compromises, and that had already been acknowledged by the member states, she added, providing a quick evaluation of Hungary’s six-month period holding the chair.

On Luxemburg square the crowd is always big on Thursday nights, but this time there was also a party going on next to the European Parliament bidding farewell to the period when Hungary has been holding the EU-presidency. The restaurants are extremely crowded so the people who have not found a chair, sit down or lie down in the middle of the square, onto the grass, holding a glass of Belgian beer in their hands.

But besides the usual beer bottles plastic glasses filled with Hungarian wine sorts have appeared in the hands of the crowd. Out of the plastic plates they were eating lángos, which is a Hungarian scone with cheese and sour cream dumping, and a ring-shaped sweet cake called trumpet-shell. The usual party crowd mingled with those attending the festival - it seemed a good idea to stage the farewell party on a Thursday night.

On the Esplanade, the square between a new wing of the European Parliament recently named after the first freely elected Hungarian prime minister, József Antall, just next to the Luxemburg square, programmes started as early as in the morning. Stilted artistes, musicians, handy crafts, representatives of the rural Hungarian folk culture have displayed their arts and crafts, how to make rag-paper, how to make planking, spin children’s toys out of cornhusk. Jewellers, leather good makers, textile artists have put their goods to sale, and even soda water was there to be bought in old-style bottles, after all, we thank the invention to the 19th centrury Hungarian physics teacher, Ányos Jedlik.

Hungarian cuisine played a major role in entertaining the crowd on the Esplanade, besides the trademark dish gulyás, traditional sausages were very popular, on top of the above mentioned specialties like lángos and trumpet-shell. It is most interesting how these items made it onto the public squares around the European Parliament - they were not imported for the occasion, rather bought in various specialty shops in Brussels, as quite a few Hungarian entrepreneurs have started to conquer the market in Belgium – to the great joy of the Hungarians working in Brussels. Considering drinks, well, it was not only the soda water in crafted bottles that was selling in great quantities. On the contrary. The white wine from the region of Sopron and the red one from the region of Villány was being sold by a Flemish retailer in one of the seven makeshift rural houses, symbolising the seven main regions of folk culture in Hungary. Other types of first class wines were on sale at the stand of the Board of Hungarian Tourism. The director of the Brussels representation of the Tourism Board Péter Urbányi, speaking at the stand, said: ’The Hungarian cuisine makes, no doubt, the country more attractive. The EU-presidency has now put Hungary into the centre of attention, and that should show in the number of incoming tourists, just like it has been the case when Hungary’s accession took pace in 2004.’ he added.

Out of the total of over 400 cultural events staged alongside the Hungarian EU-presidency, there are only a few left. Creative director of the institution of coordinating these programmes, Hungarofest, Mónika Balatoni said: ’Monday the programmes in London start, and then the concert in front of the Gate of Brandenburg in Berlin takes place on the 29th of June, to mention only the most imminent programmes’.