Laszlo Bruszt, CEU Professor Emeritus and Program Director of the Global Forum/Enlargement Hub project, was honored with the 2025 Dr. Elemér Hantos Prize at a ceremony hosted by the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Alexander Swoboda, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute from 1990 to 1998, opened the evening by sharing a welcome speech, before Charles Epping, Chairman of the Central Europe Foundation, presented the prize to Professor Dr Laszlo Bruszt.
Provided by the Central Europe Foundation of Zurich, the Dr. Elemer Hantos Prize is awarded periodically to “a person, persons, or organisation for their efforts to promote Economic Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe.”
The award ceremony was followed by a keynote lecture by Laszlo Bruszt, titled “The Enlargement Paradox: How Integration Can Undermine Democracy” and subtitled “Lessons from Eastern Enlargement and Ukraine on Markets, Institutions, and Democratic Resilience”. EU enlargement has long been guided by the belief that democratic institutions, once established through external conditionality, become self-sustaining. He revisited this assumption, arguing that the separation of economic integration from the continuous strengthening of political institutions — and the underestimation of the distributive consequences of Single Market integration, including the political uses of its corrective instruments — has, at times, weakened domestic support for democracy. Reflecting on the first wave of Eastern enlargement and the case of Ukraine, it suggests the need for a more integrated strategy linking markets, institutions, and social stabilisation.
Watch the lecture:
Read more about the prize and the award ceremony on the Geneva Graduate Institute’s website.
Photo: © Boris Palefroy, Geneva Graduate Institute