Introduction
Preventing and managing fragile and crisis situations, rendering assistance to societies in post-conflict situations, and emerging security challenges require the international community to pool resources and pursue comprehensive and coordinated approaches. This is especially the case for the member states of the European Union, which is a global actor on the international stage and possesses a huge set of instruments for these purposes.
After the change of regime in 1990, Hungary reorganised its administration and adjusted it to new values, conditions and requirements. One of the first steps was the introduction of new reporting lines corresponding to the values, rules and regulations of a parliamentary democracy as well as the establishment of the Conference of State Secretaries for Administrations, whose members represent the ministries and create an effective framework for a whole-of-government approach (WGA).
Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. These new memberships prompted the state to introduce further measures and mechanisms for ensuring coherence and consistency in its decision-making system. It was vital to establish governmental bodies and coordination mechanisms which ensure that agreed and coordinated positions are represented. This applies to both the development and implementation of policies, including those related to external relations and participation in efforts to respond to fragile and crisis situations worldwide. The tasks involved with holding the EU presidency in 2011 presented Hungary with additional challenges and forced its government to pay specific attention to a coherent governmental approach.
The report below aims to take stock of the measures and efforts of Hungarian governments in recent decades to develop an intra-governmental decision-making system (in other words, a WGA) in order to ensure more coherence and consistency in cases of external crisis situations.