NOTES

1. HDF: Hungarian Democratic Forum, ISP: Independent Smallholders' Party, CDDP: Christian Democratic Peoples' Party

2. Miklós Németh became Prime Minister in the autumn of 1988, after Károly Grósz resigned as head of government

3. A program of national renewal, Budapest, 1990, p. 177.

4. It was the poet Endre Ady who dubbed Hungary a "ferry country", because, in the course of its history, it had always engaged in a two-way traffic - like a ferry - between the West and the East.

5. A program of national renewal, p. 184.

6. Central European Free Trade Agreement, which - after the breakup of Czechoslovakia - has also been joined by Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria.

7. HSP: Hungarian Socialist Party, AFD: Alliance of Free Democrats.

8. Government program, (...) p. 145.

9. Government program, p. 146.

10. Central European Initiative, formerly the Quadrigonale, Pentagonale, Hexagonale, etc.; at present, it has 16 members.

11. www.mfa.gog.hu/euanyag/SZI/eu/kulnyilol.htm. p. 1.

12. International Forces - 1996-98; Stabilization Forces - from 1998 onwards.

13. "On the threshold of a new millennium", Budapest, 1998.

14. "On the threshold of a new millennium", Budapest, 1998.

15. "On the threshold of a new millennium", Budapest, 1998.

16. "On the threshold of a new millennium", Budapest, 1998.

17. That date has, since then, lost its relevance; at present, the beginning of 2003 seems the earliest realistic date for the accession.