Dr. Balázs Tárnok

 

Balázs Tárnok received his legal degree (J.D.) in 2015 at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Budapest. He studied European and international law as an Erasmus student at the Radboud University Faculty of Law, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He defended his doctoral (Ph.D.) thesis at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in November 2020. His PhD thesis “The European Citizens’ Initiative as a tool for the protection of the rights and the promotion of the interests of national minorities in the EU” is being published by Ludovika-University of Public Service (Ludovika Egyetemi Kiadó). Balázs is also a Translator Specialized in Law, he gained his LL.M. degree at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University Deák Ferenc School of Postgraduate Studies in 2018.

Balázs worked in several organizations gaining experience in the field of minority rights and advocacy, and the law and policies of the European Union. In 2014/15, he worked in the Institute for the Protection of Minority Rights, Budapest. Since 2016, Balázs has been a legal advisor at the Dr. Sobor Law Firm, where he assisted in the court proceedings of the European Citizens’ Initiative on National Minority Regions at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Since 2017, Balázs has been a legal expert of the Rákóczi Association (Rákóczi Szövetség) coordinating the Hungarian signature collection campaign of the Minority SafePack Initiative. In 2018, he started working at the State Secretariat for the European Union Relations of the Prime Minister’s Office. Until the end of 2020, he also worked as an international advisor at the International Directorate of Ludovika-University of Public Service. Currently, since June 2022, he is the Managing Director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute. He is also the Deputy Director of the Training Program on National Minorities at the Károli Interdisciplinary Academy (Károli Gáspár University, Budapest) and Adviser on Minority Rights at the Institute for the Protection of Minority Rights, Budapest.

In 2021, he was the Hungary Foundation’s visiting research fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA. His research focused on human and minority rights and ethnic advocacy in the U.S., paying special attention to the violations of the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Central and Eastern Europe. His articles on the deprivation of the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Western Ukraine and the contemporary application of the Benes decrees in Slovakia have been published by Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Newsweek, and The Washington Times.

Balázs is a member of the Hungarian community in South Slovakia. As an external expert, he was nominated as a candidate for the 2019 European elections by the Party of the Hungarian Community in Slovakia. Since 2018, he is the Vice-Chairman of the Rákóczi Association (Rákóczi Szövetség), one of the biggest culture-oriented Hungarian civil society organizations in Hungary. As an external expert, he was also nominated as a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament elections by the Party of the Hungarian Community in Slovakia. In 2022, he received the Lőrincz Csaba Award presented by the Kisebbségekért – Pro Minoritate Foundation to acknowledge his activities in the field of foreign and national minority policy.

Since January 2020, Balázs is a researcher at Europe Strategy Research Institute of Ludovika-University of Public Service. In June 2022, he was appointed as the Managing Director of the Institute. Balázs’s research at Europe Strategy Research Institute focuses on the law and policies of the European Union, human and minority rights, the protection of the rights and the promotion of the interests of national minorities in the EU, EU’s participatory democracy and regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe and the V4 Group.

 

tarnok.balazs@uni-nke.hu

EUSTRAT publications:

Minority rights – Gateway for Ukraine to the EU

European Parliament report on the implementation of the European Citizens’ Initiative

V4 demonstrating unity on illegal migration and border protection

The fight for minority rights in the EU continues at the Court of Justice

The Visegrad Group is alive and kicking

Council of Europe criticising Slovakia for violating human rights of national minorities

Human rights of ethnic minorities in Ukraine – the ‘Kaboul moment’ is on the way?

Hungary’s seven theses on the future of Europe

European Commission: Ukraine must respect the rights of national minorities

EP committee demanding action of the European Commission on the Beneš Decrees

The European Commission turned its back on national and linguistic minorities

Hungarian Government cuts political ties with Commissioner Jourová

Slovakia Still Applying the Beneš Decrees – Principle of Collective Guilt in the European Union

Impact of the Coronavirus on ECI Procedures – Will the Commission Extend Deadlines?

Publications:

Protection of the Rights and Promotion of the Interests of National Minorities in a New Era

The U.S. Ignores Human Rights Abuses in Slovakia at Its Own Peril

Why Is Ethnic Discrimination Still Legal in Slovakia?

Reconciling the Hungarian-Ukrainian Schism

Ignoring Minority Rights is Part of Brussels' Agenda to Homogenize Europe

Ukraine Is Fighting the Wrong War

Minority Rights – Ukraine’s Gateway to the West

Widening the gap between the EU and its citizens - On the European Commission’s decision rejecting the Minority SafePack Initiative

European Citizens’ Initiatives for the Protection and Promotion of Rights and Interests of National Minorities - Latest Developments

Ukrainian-Hungarian relations throughout the years - How to move forward (co-author: Lyudmyla Filyuk)

The Szekler National Council's European Citizens' Initiative

European Citizens' Initiatives for the Protection of National Minorities (co-author: Péter Varga)

European Minorities Win a Battle in Luxembourg - The Judgement of the General Court in the Case Minority SafePack European Citizens' Initiative