MCC Brussels Opening Conference
Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Bienvenue! I welcome you to the opening conference of MCC Brussels. I am very glad that so many of you are here with us today.
Today’s event is a result of hard, dedicated work from my colleagues, so first and foremost, I would like to thank them for their effort.
One might say that there’s nothing special about us gathering to discuss important issues like the future of Europe. But I disagree. We are opening our center in exceptionally turbulent times. The Western world, and especially Europe, is facing a number of serious challenges.
It is not just the soaring gas and electricity prices or the cost-of-living crisis that European economies and families have to cope with, but we witness unprecedented intellectual debates polarizing our political discourse, weakening our competitiveness and our ability to act.
In such difficult times, there is a bigger need for the MCC than ever.
Mathias Corvinus Collegium is a well-known brand in Hungary. We have 26 years of experience in talent development. A great number of Hungarian students are taking part in our trainings and our alumni can be found in prominent positions all over the world.
The year 2020 marked an important milestone in our history. By now we have 24 centers across the Carpathian Basin, providing wholistic education to over 6000 students.
Our goal is to prepare our students to be the next patriotic generation of Hungary that is talented, open-minded, internationally experienced and competitive. We worked out a unique, unorthodox training system to achieve this. A method that provides knowledge and develops skills alongside the traditional education system, assisting young students from primary school until their post-university years.
We would like to equip our students with skills to stand their ground internationally too. That is why we host renowned foreign scholars and guest researchers at the MCC from all over the world. We have visiting professors from the United States, from Europe, and from the East too. We are proud of the diversity of ideas we present and the free space we offer as a platform for discussion to our students, professors, and guests equally.
We believe talent development and research go hand in hand. Therefore, besides our educational activities, we work as a think tank too. We have a number of institutes offering research workshops on climate policy, migration, education, youth research, and psychology. In these institutions, Hungarian and foreign scholars work together with our students, developing research skills in the process.
In 2022 we decided to take another step forward by opening our office in Brussels. We would like talented Hungarians to visit Brussels and understand how the EU works. We want to extend our field of research to the European Union, and we would like to take an active part in shaping the debate about the future of Europe. I am certain, that the knowledge that we have accumulated in the last 26 years will be useful not only in Budapest, but here, in Brussels too.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
The European Union is one of the most ambitious political projects in the history of the entire Western civilization. Nobody has ever tried to bring peace and prosperity by means of voluntary consensus and mutually beneficial cooperation instead of coercion. And as it happens to unprecedented achievements of mankind, it requires a great deal of intellectual work. The success of the European project is not self-evident. We need to put in the effort to achieve what the founding fathers of the European Union originally wanted.
In recent years, European leaders neglected having a meaningful discussion about the direction the EU should take. They took European integration for granted and thought that all arising problems can be solved through administrative means. They thought that emphasizing our common values could replace having substantive discussion on what these values mean and which actions should follow as a consequence. As we see the current crisis, it seems that we are paying the price for our ignorance.
There are many ways a country a can contribute to the European project. There are the old, economically strong members states of the European Union, such as Germany or France that are the economic powerhouses of Europe The net contributors as they say in Brussels.
Hungary on the contrary is a relatively new, small member state with 40 years of Communist past. Due to our successful economic policies in the past 12 years, we have become much stronger over the years, but when it comes to the economy, we still have some catch-up to do compared to our Western European partners.
But fortunately, there are other ways to contribute to the European project too. One of those being intellect. We want Hungary to contribute to the intellectual discussion about the future of Europe. And there is no doubt, when it comes to talent, Hungary is a net contributor for sure.
In the past years, the West and the European Union became mediocre and way too comfortable by giving up on bettering performance, staying competitive. They let false ideologies affect their sense of reality.
But we don’t believe in mediocrity – we believe in meritocracy. We would like to bring some intellectual clarity to the debate on our common future by offering a platform for the freedom of thought, critical thinking, the possibility to argue, disagree, and resolve our differences.
In achieving this, young talents will play a decisive role. We need citizens who, besides being critical, are also able and willing to stand up for values that matter. We need young people who are proud of their nation, their roots and heritage, and feel a strong sense of responsibility for their immediate and broader communities alike.
That’s what the MCC Brussels is all about.
I wish the best of luck to the MCC Brussels staff with this noble cause. I am sure that Frank and Werner, and all of our colleagues will do a terrific job. As they always do.
Thank you for your attention.
