About the Summit
Just over a century ago, the Western world stood at the height of its power. Its empires spanned continents, its economic and military strength was unrivalled, and its cultural and artistic achievements set the global standard.
As the West moves deeper into the twenty-first century, this historic dominance has eroded. Demographic decline and mass migration strain social cohesion. Economic and technological leadership is increasingly challenged by other civilizations. Spiritual, aesthetic, and cultural foundations have been steadily weakened, now facing both internal disintegration and external pressure. Militarily, Europe confronts profound vulnerability, from its inability to defend itself to the most significant European war since the Second World War, which continues to exhaust and destabilize the continent.
Can the West reverse this trajectory and reclaim its role as a leading civilization? The MCC Budapest Summit on Reclaiming the West confronts this question directly. Addressing the core demographic, economic, cultural, and security challenges of our time, the conference seeks not merely to diagnose decline, but to offer concrete strategies for renewal, confidence, and long-term civilizational endurance.
Bringing together leading statesmen, scholars, policymakers, and intellectual leaders, the summit focuses on practical paths toward stability and prosperity rather than managed decline. It emphasizes sovereignty and nation-based solutions as essential foundations for European and Western revival, and explores how Europe can confront both external threats and destructive ideological currents in order to secure a viable inheritance for future generations. Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) is Hungary’s largest educational institution and research center, providing extracurricular education to thousands of Hungarian students and conducting important research to inform public discourse across the Carpathian Basin. Over the past 30 years, MCC has built a reputation as a trusted partner for distinguished scholars, universities, and NGOs, setting the gold standard for talent development in Central Europe. Committed to offering students the best education and opportunities, MCC also serves as a dynamic platform for conferences, events, and forums that address society’s most pressing issues.
