The ECH (EUNIC Cluster Hungary) is a network which is promoting EU values under the umbrella organisation EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture). The ECH objectives are to promote EU values through cooperation and events which are projecting the divers and the common characteristics of the countries. However there are problems which become evident in the current time where external problems clarify internal problems. The conservative movement, the financial crisis, the national institute leaders control and an ECH network which has been driven only on enthusiasm and mutual good relationships. The factors are many and the ECH network has not changed since its foundation in 2007, where a memorandum was created but never developed. The network’s missing foundation or structure is exactly the internal problem which is confusing the institute leaders and encouraging alternative directions for the network. Not having a structure to fall back on is creating a fundamental obstacle for ECH in the transforming environment and an ECH network which are subordinate as a marionette of national institutes.
This assignment examines the problems in the structure from the perspective of the institute leaders, who are controlling the network, and also with firsthand knowledge/observations achieved by the author through his presence at the meetings and work at the events in ECH.
The national institutes want more elaborate cooperation within the ECH, but at the same time the institutes are utilising the network to promote national related events, or events constructed by single national institutes in the network. This is a internal paradox for the institutes who want further and more elaborate internal cooperation in the network to meet the national interests. The paradox leads to changes in the internal structure to inhibit the national utilisation without losing the enthusiasm in the partnerships. An additional legislative solution toward the single institutes seems untenable toward the institutes already heavy burden in this area. The solution is back at the network’s foundation, which should be developed to focus more on European values in Hungarian society and this way encourages internal development toward a stronger network. This assignment first investigates the problems of the network and secondly through this investigation develops counter-measures to the problems. The decisions of the counter-measures are up to the institute leaders to apply and the product of their decisions have unintended consequences, which cannot be predicted for this assignment.