THE EU ACCESSION’S IMPACT ON THE HUNGARIAN NONPROFIT SECTOR, THE NONPROFIT ORGANISATIONS’ ROLE IN THE ACCESSION PROCESS1

The paper gives an overview of the roles played by the Hungarian nonprofit organizations in the EU accession process. These roles are as follows: To encourage and organize a dialogue and direct contacts between the “old” and “new” European citizens. To assist people in becoming informed about and involved in European networks, to build solidarity and develop participative European citizenship. To tackle the problems which constitute serious obstacles in the way of meeting European standards. The paper also tries to identify the very first impacts of the EU accession on the Hungarian nonprofit sector. The authors detect the implications of the regional approach for the co-operation between nonprofit organizations and analyze whether the Hungarian third sector and its governmental partner institutions are prepared for a prompt reaction to the accessibility of the EU structural funds2.