Old Obstacles and New Opportunities in Regional Cooperation of Local Governments

The accession of Hungary to the European Union created vast opportunities for the development of infrastructure in the area of environmental protection. But the financial resources almost always depend on the availability of some kind of regional cooperation or territorial integration. In my paper, I study the experiences gained regarding the establishment and operation of regional cooperation; the reasons of the difficulties of operation during short-term cooperation and the future possibilities for cooperation in the long run on the basis of a quantitative analysis of the „Szeged Regional Waste Management Programme” ISPA/Cohesion Found project. It was to establish a project region of 250 thousand inhabitants, which region is the beneficiary of the European Union support. In order to analyse the reasons of the defaults of operation, I proposed a hypothesis based on the interviews conducted with project managers and experts involved in the project studied. I conducted a questionnaire survey in order to check the validity of the hypothesis by way of a quantitative method. The analyses of the questionnaires of the representatives of the 32 municipalities appeared to partly confirm the hypothesis, in other respects they extended beyond the statements of the hypothesis. Although past traditions of natural cooperation based on mutual benefit had died out during the forty years of socialism, European Union projects, however, forced new types of regional cooperation, i.e., project regions, to develop shortly after the change of the regime.environmental protection, environmental infrastructure development, waste management, project management, regional cooperation

Ottokár Prohászka et le Christianisme social

Depuis Rerum Novarum de Léon XIII (1891) et jusqu’à nos jours, avec les encycliques Centesimus Annus de Jean-Paul II (1991) et Caritas in Veritate de Benoît XVI (2009), l’enseignement social de l’Eglise catholique est essentiellement une prise de position, au nom du message du Christ, contre le monde livré au matérialisme et à l’athéisme. L’accent y est constamment mis sur la dimension spirituelle de l’homme, sur la vocation de la personne à la transcendance, sur les droits fondamentaux et la poursuite du bien commun, sur la justice et la charité. Aux tournant du XXe siècle, deux grands apôtres de l’Eglise sociale en Hongrie, le prêtre Sándor Giesswein et l’évêque Ottokár Prohászka, furent dans leurs oeuvres écrites et dans leur action les pionniers engagés de ce « christianisme social »

Regional cooperation in implementing a waste management project

A precondition for the successful implementation of the ISPA/Cohcsion Fund project entitled ..Regional Waste Management Program of Szeged" and adopted in 2000 was the establishment of a project-based region with a population of 250 thousand inhabitants as the beneficiary of the said project. In this paper, I studied the experience obtained so far in connection with the establishment of regional cooperation, together with a review of the opportunities for further long-term cooperation

Synergic disorders in the early operation of the Szeged Regional Waste Management Program ISPA project

On the basis of a case study I present the experiences of the operation and the typical operational conflicts of the completed Hungarian EU environmental infrastructure development projects, first of all concerning the cooperation of the beneficiary local governments. In the analyzed case - "Szeged Regional Waste Management Program" ISPA project - the legal beneficiary is the municipality of Szeged, but the other 32 municipalities of the region are also interested in the successful implementation of the project and are responsible for the continuous long run operation

Winning strategies in congested traffic

One-directional traffic on two-lanes is modeled in the framework of a spring-block type model. A fraction $q$ of the cars are allowed to change lanes, following simple dynamical rules, while the other cars keep their initial lane. The advance of cars, starting from equivalent positions and following the two driving strategies is studied and compared. As a function of the parameter $q$ the winning probability and the average gain in the advancement for the lane-changing strategy is computed. An interesting phase-transition like behavior is revealed and conclusions are drawn regarding the conditions when the lane changing strategy is the better option for the drivers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Születésnapi szimfónia : Konferencia Berlász Melinda tiszteletére

Beszámoló a "Lendület" 20-21. Századi Magyar Zenei Archívum és Kutatócsoport, valamint az MTA BTK Zenetudományi Intézet Magyar Zenetörténeti Osztálya Berlász Melinda 70. születésnapja tiszteletére rendezett konferenciájáról