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Hay & Menon: European Politics

Hungary

After the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary, the new government was keen to apply for membership of the EC/EU due to its ability to offer both political and economic stability. Hungary adopted a European Agreement with the EC in December 1991 and made its official application for EU membership in March 1994. It was therefore one of the earliest of the CEECs to apply for EU membership. It was also one of the first wave of applicant countries to be invited to begin accession talks at the Luxembourg European Council in 1997. On 1 May 2004 Hungary joined the EU. Hungary is one of the richer CEECs to have joined the EU in 2004. However, it is also one of the most Eurosceptic member states, with only 49% of respondents claiming that Hungary's membership of the EU was a good thing in a Eurobarometer survey conducted in spring 2006 (only Latvia had a more Eurosceptic response amongst the CEE member states). However, this Euroscepticism has not translated into poor administration of EU law, with Hungary amongst the better performing countries in terms of transposing internal market rules into domestic law.