THE INTEGRATION POTENTIAL OF HUNGARY, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA AND POLAND

The central problem of the article is the following question: "To what extent can the countries of the so called eastern enlargement contribute to the process of democratization and further integration of the EU?" In order to answer that question, the author takes a "bottom up" research perspective of europeization and creates an analytical construct - "integration potential", as a key indicator for assessing the integration capacity of a country. On the basis of a comparative analysis of the empirical data and the estimated tendencies of the integration potential of Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, it is shown that there is no convergence in the integration orientation of these four countries. Hungary and Slovakia tend to have a more integrative integration concept, while Czech Republic and Poland tend to have more of a sovereigntist integration concept. On the basis of those results, the author concludes that Hungary and Slovakia will make a cooperative and non conflictive democratic contribution in the further "deepening" of the EU and a pro-integration contribution to its further enlargement. As opposed to them, Czech Republic and Poland will be less cooperative in the creation and realization of the common European integration policies. These "integration" potentials will, thus, only augment the already existing differences regarding the "deepening" and the enlargement of the EU.