Politics
PM Orbán talked about the the war’s end in Ukraine, invites Netanjahu to Budapest – UPDATED
The two most dangerous months of the Russia-Ukraine war “are ahead of us” and Hungary “must continue to pursue a sober kind of politics”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday. The PM also announced that he is inviting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanjahu to visit Hungary.
Trump will bring peace but we have to wait for it, Orbán says
Orbán said that peace was within reach thanks to the election victory of Donald Trump, but it was clear that the outgoing Democrats wanted to leave behind a “more serious legacy” compared with the situation as it was when Trump won.
He said Hungary’s fate was directly at stake in this conflict, so it would act in a thoughtful, predictable and calm manner, Orbán said.
Noting that Ukraine is Hungary’s neighbour, he said the conflict was not escalating a distant part of the world and war developments in a neighbouring country were immediately palpable. Furthermore, ethnic Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, “so the threat is direct”, he added.
By now they have started using weapons that can easily reach countries outside the territory of Ukraine, primarily neighbouring countries, he said. “These reports concern us and are not just about international diplomatic conflicts; they are about direct Hungarian interests and Hungary being under the threat of war,” he added.
Commenting on Trump entering office on January 20, he said “dawn will arrive all of a sudden” but “we are in the darkest hour … and until then we are living in an even greater darkness than before.” The two most dangerous months of the war “are ahead of us”, he said.
Without the Americans Ukraine will collapse
The prime minister said the situation was clear in military terms: if the Americans stopped backing Ukraine, Europe would not have the slightest hope of successfully supporting Ukraine, not to mention the financial-economic consequences of a lost war, he added. Orbán said Hungary would be guided by this thought in the next two months, until Trump enters office: to survive by pursuing a smart and sober kind of politics, he said.
In response to a question about the threat of introducing heavy weapons, he said there were significant risks.
He noted that within 24 hours of the US presidential election results became clear, the German government collapsed.
“We Hungarians are not used to that; we are a country that pursues sovereign foreign policy, and regardless of how much the world cracks on all fronts, we’ll always make decisions based on our national interest, and we won’t tie our fate to other governments,” he said.
He said developments in America could have an almost immediate effect on the behaviour of “not-insignificant” western European governments and countries. This was because when the Americans made certain steps, then certain countries felt an obligation to follow the American directive, he added.
Empty talk and idling in western Europe
Orbán said the weapons that the Americans had allowed the Ukrainians to use were extremely complicated and reports suggested that the Ukrainians were unable to reach their target with them independently and without the involvement of US expertise. This was why the Russians had responded so suddenly and powerfully, he added.
Orbán also said that the weight and significance of remarks made in western Europe and in Russia were different, and western European decision-makers had not considered this seriously enough.
“There’s a huge amount of empty talk and idling in western Europe, with statements made that have no direct consequence. European leaders in important positions easily allow themselves to make tirades on geopolitical and military matters, thinking that these are merely a matter of communication, to make a domestic political point,” he said.
He added that the Russian system of communications was very different. “When the president says something, it has weight and consequence. When the Russians amend the doctrine on the use of nuclear force, it is not only a communications tool or trick,” he said.
Putin’s words are not tricks
Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statement under which Russia could consider as targets countries sending such equipment to Ukraine, Orbán said: “This isn’t a communications trick; we must keep our wits about us.”
He said Russia fundamentally made its policies and sought its place in the world based on military power. “With one of the strongest armies in the world and the most modern, most destructive weapons are crucial for its vision of the future,” he said, adding that “when they say something on this subject, it should be understood the way they say it.”
In the next two months, “the logic of war should be taken into consideration, carefully weighing each word and sentence and proceeding in line with common sense rather than on basis of the political rules based on western European communications,” Orbán said, adding “or else we’ll be in trouble.”
Orban said he supported that “the number and size” of current conflicts in the world should be reduced through every measure possible. “But international institutions in fact fail to act carefully in their decision-making,” he added.
Orbán said he is inviting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Hungary.
Orbán outraged at ICC ruling
Referring to an arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday, Orbán called the move “outrageously brazen and cynical”, amounting to “interference in an ongoing conflict in legal disguise” and motivated by politics.
Orbán said this was in itself wrong and would completely discredit the reputation of international law and could “add fuel to the fire”. He said he had “no other choice but to oppose” the ruling.
Referring to the invitation, Orbán said he would guarantee that the ICC ruling would not be applied in Hungary, adding that “we will not follow its provisions”.
“We solely consider the quality and state of Israel-Hungary ties … Israel’s prime minister will be surrounded by suitable security to conduct substantive talks in Hungary,” he said.
According to Telex, the invitation received a warm welcome in Tel Aviv. The Embassy of Israel in Budapest wrote in a statement, that Hungary chose the right side of History in this case and PM Netanyahu appreciates Orbán’s gesture.
PfE is important player
Meanwhile, Orbán said the goal was to make the Patriots for Europe the most influential party family in the European Parliament by the end of the current term. He said that this required building alliances and using political tools within the European Parliament to increase their power, adding that he expected agreements and group alliances to significantly strengthen the Patriots’ influence on decision-making.
Orbán said that in international politics “you have as much influence as you have strength”. It was a good start, he said, when “we kicked in the door of the saloon bar of European politics”.
“The representatives of common sense turned up,” he added, which was enough to set up the third largest group.
The Patriots represented “occasionally raw but clear positions” that differed from the mainstream, the former centre, regarding migration and child and family protection, for instance, he said.
Orbán said the “period requiring behind-the-scenes deals in the European Commission” was over and it is now possible to return to “the period of clear, straight talking”. It is necessary to declare that they want to strengthen the group, he added.
Concerning Eurasian cooperation, Orbán said the subject had earlier been given “much less weight” in education than ties between the United States and Europe, whereas Europe has “the most organic ties” to the regions east of Hungary rather than “to the far side of the ocean”. Those regions, he said, included the Caucasus, China, India, Korea, and Japan “not just Russia”.
“It is time we talked more about Europe’s integral unity with Asia”
“Changing directions is not easy in Hungarian public thinking,” Orbán said, adding that he had three maps of the world in his study, one with Europe, the second with the US and the third with Asia at its centre.
“We Hungarians do not look at the world like that; we are accustomed to a single viewpoint … I think it is time we talked more about Europe’s integral unity with Asia, in education, in public discourse, and perhaps in interviews like this one,” the prime minister said.
Orbán said reorienting Europe and Hungary was an ongoing assignment that should happen according to “our own way of thinking” as well as in terms of economic, trade and investment policy.
The prime minister said those who opposed the government’s National Consultation survey were not “actually interested in people’s opinions” and saw no direct link between the will of the people and political decision-making. He called that attitude “a kind of disdain”.
Coarse and crude public language
“A negative and threatening tone arising from contempt” had emerged in Hungarian politics, he said, adding that politicians who were coarse and crude in their public language should “apologise and withdraw”.
He also said aggression arising from such verbal expressions should be prevented “because we don’t need a war in public life … we are a community, and we need to treat each other fairly.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said a key plank of the government’s new economic action plan was to increase the purchasing power of wages.
In Hungary, employers and employees come to an agreement on the minimum wage, he said, but the government puts its seal on the agreement. If the deal is beyond the reach of the two sides then the government “helps out”. He added that the government had stepped into the latest round to secure a three-year wage deal, and this would soon be ratified.
Accordingly, the minimum wage in 2025, 2026 and 2027 will grow above the rate of inflation, so the purchasing power of wages will increase rather than the opposite, he said. Inflation, Orbán added, was expected to be between 3 and 4 percent against wage growth of above 10 percent. “We want to maintain [this] momentum…” he said.
UPDATE 1: Foreign Minister Szijjártó calls arrest warrant issued against Israeli PM absurd
Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, has called the International Court of Justice arrest warrant issued against Israel’s prime minister and defence minister “shameful and absurd”. Commenting on a phone call with Israeli counterpart Gideon Sza’ar, in which he assured him that Hungary objected to the international court system being turned into a political tool, Szijjártó said in a Facebook post on Thursday: “This has now happened.” “This decision brings shame on the international court system by putting the prime minister of a country subjected to a diabolical terrorist attack” on the same footing as the terrorist leaders of that attack. “The decision is unacceptable,” he declared.
UPDATE 2: ICC arrest warrant ‘mockery of the law” Hungarian Jewish Mazsihisz says
The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) has criticised the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister and defence minister as a decision that “makes a mockery of the law” and “tramples on justice”. Mazsihisz said in a statement on Thursday that it concurred with Israeli President Isaac Herzog that the warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were “outrageous” and had been issued “in bad faith”.
They said neither the Israeli prime minister nor the defence minister were guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, but were commanding the Israel Defence Forces’ fight in defence of the Jewish people in response to Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel in October last year.
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Grandiose railway development plan announced concerning the Great Hungarian Plains
In the next two years Hungary’s government is planning on spending HUF 600bn on railway developments on the Budapest-Cegléd-Kecskemét-Szeged line, Construction and Transportation Minister János Lázár said on Thursday in Kecskemét (Central Hungary).
Lázár said the Szeged-Kiskunfélegyháza and Kiskunfélegyháza-Cegléd railway lines are being rebuilt because of the new automotive centre under construction in Szeged and in order to serve the automotive manufacturing base in Debrecen (East Hungary).
One reason for the development is labour mobility, so that commuters can get to their workplaces more easily, and the other reason is goods mobility, so that products can be more easily delivered to Western European markets, he added.
The minister said HUF 175bn will be spent on upgrading and converting the Szeged-Kiskunfelegyhaza line into a double-track railway. The Kecskemet-Dabas line will be upgraded for HUF 190bn and the Budapest-Dabas line for HUF 177bn.
The government will use European Union funds and credit to finance the projects, he said.
Kecskemét mayor Klaudia Pataki Szemereyné said around 300,000 commute to Kecskemét daily and the Kecskemét agglomeration area has 400,000-500,000 inhabitants.
In a Facebook post published this morning, Lázár said that his political community, Orbán’s Fidesz began to develop the Hungarian Great Plains after the Fall of Communism. Thanks to that, Kecskemét evolved into an industrial city, he added.
Boosting research, innovation a priority for Hungary presidency, says Minister Hankó
Boosting research and innovation with a view to enhancing the European Union’s competitiveness is one of the priorities of Hungary’s EU presidency, the minister for culture and innovation said at a special session of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) in Brussels on Thursday.
Hungary believes that in order to achieve a turnaround in competitiveness, the EU should focus not just on innovation and research but also on education, demographic indicators and identity, Balázs Hankó said in his address.
He warned of the EU’s declining share in the global economy and its dwindling performance in research and innovation. The EU, he added, accounts for just 5 percent of total global venture capital, while the United States accounts for 52 percent and China 40 percent.
“This is further evidence of the stagnation of average research and innovation spending in the EU, which remains at 2.3 percent of GDP, significantly lower than our global competitors,” he said, pointing out that only four of the world’s 50 largest tech firms are based in the EU.
The Hungarian presidency therefore aims to address multiple challenges, including the fragmentation of European research areas and reducing the innovation gap between European players and their global competitors, he said.
Hankó called for the EU’s innovation spending to be raised to 3 percent of GDP, underlining the importance of streamlining administration for innovators and guaranteeing the right business environment.
He noted that half of the research projects launched under the Horizon Europe scheme ten years ago were still ongoing.
The minister emphasised the importance of cross-border cooperation, pointing to the examples of joint projects with Western Balkan countries.
As regards financing, Hanko said large discrepancies remained between member states’ innovation budgets, noting that western European countries receive more funding for innovation than their central European peers.
Eszter Lakos, an MEP of the opposition Tisza Party, asked the minister when Hungarian university students and researchers could return to the Erasmus and Horizon programmes, insisting that the changes put forward by the government failed to meet the European Commission’s criteria.
Tamas Deutsch of ruling Fidesz called the exclusion of Hungarians from Erasmus and Horizon “discriminatory and unlawful”, saying that Hungary had passed the necessary legislative amendments to remedy the situation, but the EC had yet to respond.
At a press conference after the session, Hankó said the Hungarian government had met the EC’s requirements in connection with Hungary’s participation in Erasmus and Horizon, with the exception of the recommendations to exclude Hungarian professors and rectors from university foundation boards and allow international organisations to decide the composition of the boards.
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Orbán at Budapest Eurasia Forum: Europe must adapt to Eurasian shift or face decline
After the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, “it became clear that the West’s system of political and economic self-correction does not work,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the Budapest Eurasia Forum, adding that “new centres are emerging in the world, especially in Asia … as a result of which modernity is no longer an attribute of the West.”
Speaking at the National Bank of Hungary’s Eurasia Forum in Budapest on Thursday, Orbán said the first years after the political regime change of 1989 had been dominated by the ideal of the Western self-correction system which was believed to “guarantee our strategic security in the long run”. But in 2008-2009 it became obvious that “the financial crisis was in fact a logical consequence of deep changes in the global economy radically impacting geopolitical relations,” the prime minister said. That is why, Orbán added, Hungary’s focus has partly shifted to the East.
Hungary ‘must be sharp, swift, smart’
Hungary must be “sharp, smart and swift”, open to the world and “must constantly think on its feet to grasp the right moment for necessary decisions”, Orbán said. “Timing is the main thing in politics … politics is the realm of practical implementation, and that hinges on timing,” Orbán said. “For a country the size of Hungary, missing the right time could be lethal.”
“A country the size of Hungary can’t be slow, dumb or boring, it cannot be a follower or rely on others’ understanding or interpretation … if it wants to live at the standards we want and live up to traditions like our 1,000-year history, it must be sharp, swift and smart, open to the world…” he said.
Europe ‘losing out on world changes’
Europe is losing out on the changes in the world, and “it could remain that way in the long run unless it finds its place in its relationship with Asia,” the PM said. “If it is true that the next century belongs to Eurasia, we must notice that Europe can’t find its place in that system,” Orbán said. He said some Western leaders failed to see Eurasia’s importance, while others “see it but don’t like it”.
He said the European elite was set up to protect the status quo, which could lead to blocs forming in trade, the economy and politics. Unless Europe can pivot to an approach promoting connectivity, its status as the loser in the new processes could be cemented, he said. “Europe must understand that it is part of Eurasia and use that to its advantage, as that is the only way to be competitive with other power hubs in the world,” he said.
Current changes ‘reversal rather than restructuring’
“What is happening nowadays is reversal rather than restructuring,” Orbán said, adding that “Europe and Asia in fact are an integral unit”.
Europe and Asia are not divided by geographical borders and historically, they have formed “a natural economic unit, complementing each other”, Orbán said. “Regions where civilisation, culture and economy thrived the most lived side by side here,” Orbán added.
Eurasia, as a natural economic unit, was hindered in past centuries by the focus of world trade shifting to the seas, and in the resulting dominance of Western civilisation, he said, adding that the trend removed a balance between civilisations to the West’s benefit. A third hindrance, Orbán said, was the Western elite’s decision after the Cold War “not to restore an organic Eurasian unity but to westernise the whole world”.
“We all feel that this attitude, this Western strategy, including Europe’s, is invalid and futile; something has ended here,” he said.
‘Century of Eurasia’ to come
Eurasia will dominate the next period, and Hungary will have to find its place rather than derive it from a European strategy, Orbán said. Hungary “is consciously implementing national and economic policy, where the fact that the country lies in Eurasia is a determining, albeit not exclusively important, factor,” Orbán said.
“We are the living Eurasian concept … as a people coming from Asia,” Orbán said. He said Hungary’s conflict with the European Union was rooted in its independent strategy founded on new realities and the recognition of a new set of opportunities “regardless of the Brussels doctrine”.
Matolcsy addresses Budapest Eurasia Forum
A new Europe can be born in the 2030s by reshaping the relations between member states, based on a new agreement, National Bank of Hungary (NBH) governor György Matolcsy said, addressing the fifth Budapest Eurasia Forum. Matolcsy said Hungary could play a leading role in a new, looser European organisation, creating a good merger of East and West, a new European Common Market.
The next 25 years, Matolcs said, will bring a world of wider opportunities in the areas of information, energy, finance and knowledge, while risks will also be stronger with climate change, new wars, social tensions and artificial intelligence. This duality must be exploited, he said. These years will be defined by the three big supertrends of geopolitics, strengthening climate change and the technological revolution, he added.
Calling for a change of strategy, Matolcsy said Europe should break with the idea of creating a United States of Europe and give up the vision of a global power and establish a new, horizontal network instead. Then high efficiency could replace the current low efficiency, he said.
The title of this year’s forum, “Keywords of success: talent, knowledge, technology and capital”, reflect the changes that have taken place in the economies over the past hundred years, while also showing the way to the future, the NBH said. Today, the most successful countries are those that can build the right combination of knowledge, technology and capital, driven by talent, which requires a supportive education system.
The Budapest Eurasia Forum 2024 once again brings together influential decision-makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics to exchange opinions on the inevitable changes necessary to achieve sustainable development and to discuss the most pressing questions of our time, the NBH said.
Hungary’s room for manoeuvre ‘widened greatly’
Hungary’s room for manoeuvre has been greatly expanded in the past year, which has strengthened Hungarian communities across the borders, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a plenary meeting of the Hungarian Standing Conference (MÁÉRT) in Budapest on Thursday. The government has ploughed 1,374 billion forints (EUR 3.3bn) into policies supporting Hungarians across the borders, raising tenfold the support of the pre-2010 era, he told the meeting.
Additionally, it has spent 330 billion on 9,300 investments in the Carpathian Basin, he said.
Orbán said 2024 had been “the fullest year yet in the history of Hungarian diplomacy”. The Chinese president visited the country in May, Hungary recently organised a summit of the European Political Community and an informal summit of the 27 European member states, which adopted the Budapest declaration, “possibly the last attempt to save Europe’s competitiveness”, he said.
Through the US and European parliamentary elections, as well as the year’s successful diplomacy, Hungary managed to widen the scope of its foreign policy, he said.
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Ex-US Ambassador: Trump could broker respect between Putin and Zelensky, praises Orbán’s efforts for peace
US President-elect Donald Trump knows Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky well and if he reaches out to them, the Russian and the Ukrainian presidents will both show respect towards the United States, the former US ambassador to Hungary said in an interview with public television broadcast on Wednesday evening.
Referring to Trump’s pledge towards peace in Ukraine, David Cornstein said Zelensky was fully aware that “the entire ammunition is coming from the United States” which was why he said it would be worth listening to Trump’s advice.
Ending the war is also in the interest of central Europe, and a priority issue for Trump, Cornstein said. No country has the right to invade another independent state, said the former ambassador, adding that “it is unacceptable”.
He noted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had made efforts right from the beginning to have the warring sides sit down for talks, adding that the whole world should have followed suit.
Speaking about the close ties between Orbán and Trump, Cornstein said both of them “are very strong leaders governing along the same principles”. Also, they fully agree on cardinal issues such as migration, the importance of family and the economy, as well as the state’s role in those ares, he added.
The former ambassador said that under the Biden administration there had not been any dialogue between the US ambassador and the Hungarian government. “But, if invited, Trump would most certainly pay a visit to Hungary,” he said.
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World Science Forum in Budapest to highlight global cooperation in science, politics, and society
Eminent Hungarian and international scientists are gathering to discuss cooperation in science, politics and society at the World Science Forum (WSF) hosted in Budapest from Nov 20 to 23, the minister for culture and innovation noted at a press conference on Wednesday.
“This is a special week in Budapest since outstanding researchers in the world meet here…” Balázs Hankó said, noting that top Hungarian scientists were also participating.
He said research and innovation played a key role part in boosting European competitiveness, noting the recent adoption of the competitiveness declaration under the Hungarian EU presidency.
“We Hungarians are outstanding in research and innovation,” he said, noting the award of the Nobel prize to two Hungarian scientists last year.
This year WSF will focus on the connection between politics and science, Hankó said, referring to “excellent” cooperation between the two in Hungary.
“It is good to be a Hungarian researcher as we are in the top tier in the world,” the minister said, adding the government was committed to creating further opportunities for researchers.
Tamás Freund, the head of the main organiser Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), noted that WSF was launched in Hungary and first held in 2003.
The event is organised by UNESCO, the International Science Council (ISC), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC), the Global Young Academy (GYA) and the MTA.
He said that more than 1,100 people from 122 countries have registered to attend the event.
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Hungary and Kazakhstan strengthen ties with 7 new agreements in business, agriculture, and science
Hungary and Kazakhstan have signed seven new agreements in the areas of business development, agriculture, digitalisation and science, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said after a meeting of the Hungarian-Kazakh Business Roundtable in Budapest on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by his ministry, Varga said Hungary was committed to a policy of economic neutrality, paving the way for Hungarian companies’ expansion onto markets in both the East and the West.
He added that the roundtable meeting was a “milestone”, taking place as Hungary and Kazakhstan marked ten years of strategic partnership.
Varga, who co-chairs the Hungarian-Kazakh Intergovernmental Economic Cooperation Commission and heads the Hungary-Kazakhstan Friendship Group of the Hungarian National Assembly, noted that bilateral trade between the two countries had climbed by a factor of 2.5 since 2010. Over 200 Hungarian companies are now exporting to Kazakhstan, he added.
He also pointed to Hungarian oil and gas company MOL’s 27.5pc stake in Kazakhstan’s Rozhkovskoye gas field.
Hungary seeks “intensive ties” with Kazakhstan in all areas, including investments, water management, farming, science and education, Varga said.
The new agreements could allow Hungarian companies’ participation in a number of developments in Kazakhstan, such as a planting seed factory and a motorway vignette payment system, he added.
An agreement between Budapest’s Óbuda University and the Kazakh National University will strengthen bilateral cooperation in science and innovation, he said.
President Sulyok meets Kazakh counterpart
President Tamas Sulyok met Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan, for talks in the presidential palace on Wednesday.
At the talks, Tokayev signed the book of the Sándor Palace, and the two presidents gave each other gifts. The gifts Sulyok presented to his guest included wine and porcelain, while he received a set of jewellery, a painting, and a box of apples.
After the presidents met for a working lunch, Sandor Palace issued a statement that the two presidents agreed that “excellent” ties between the countries informed by a common history and similar ways of thinking, and Hungary sought to pursue varied and intensive relations with Central Asian countries, with a special focus on the economy.
President Tokayev said his visit was aimed at elevating already “extremely good” relations to an even higher level, and he noted that Kazakhstan established diplomatic representation in Budapest in 1993, its first in Europe.
President Sulyok said cooperation had benefitted both countries in recent years, noting that this year the two countries were marking ten years of their strategic partnership.
Both countries were well placed as logistics and trade hubs between East and West, and Hungary “is looking forward to further opportunities” to cooperate in the energy and water industries while also welcoming Kazakh investors to Hungary, the statement said.
The two heads of state agreed that global solutions were needed to mitigate the consequences of climate change and protect the environment.
The presidents talked about Tuesday’s Hungarian-German soccer match which they both attended, and Tokayev praised the Hungarian team.
After the meeting, Tokayev invited Sulyok to pay an official visit to Kazakhstan next year.
Later on László Kövér, the speaker of parliament, received President Tokayev in Parliament, the national assembly’s press office said in a statement. Both officials praised blossoming bilateral relations and noted the “strategic importance of ties in education and scholarship programmes”, as well as the role that powers like Kazakhstan and Hungary “can play in preventing further escalation” of the Russia-Ukraine war and in securing the quickest possible ceasefire.
Szijjártó: Hungarian-Kazakh economic cooperation to advance ‘by leaps and bounds’
Economic cooperation between Hungary and Kazakhstan is set to advance “by leaps and bounds”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by his ministry on the occasion of a visit to Budapest by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Szijjártó said a number of big Hungarian companies would make large investments in Kazakhstan.
Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter is making preparations to bring some manufacturing to Kazakhstan, where it sells around HUF 10bn of its products a year, he said. A Hungarian agribusiness is setting up plants in Kazakhstan with significant support from the local investment promotion agency, he added.
Three Hungarian companies are partnering on a USD 15m waterfowl farm investment that will produce both meat and feathers, he said.
A Hungarian company is part of a consortium rolling out a road vignette system in Kazakhstan and two Hungarian universities are drafting a plan for a reform of the country’s water management practices, he added.
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has invested USD 200m in Kazakhstan and has a stake in a field there that started production in October, he said. MOL is in talks on expanding further in the region, he added.
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Bizarre: Former Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsány launches Minecraft server after viral TikTok video
Ferenc Gyurcsány, the president of the Hungarian opposition party Democratic Coalition, made an unexpected promise to his TikTok followers in early November: if one of his videos garnered 1,000 likes, he would set up a Minecraft server.
According to Blikk, what initially appeared to be a casual remark quickly gained traction. Not only did the video surpass the target, but the likes skyrocketed, making it impossible for the project to remain just an offhand idea. Since then, the number of likes has multiplied, and the video announcing the Official Democratic Coalition Minecraft server has more than 100,000 likes.
A brief history of Minecraft
Minecraft, the open-world sandbox game first created by Swedish developer Markus Persson in 2009, is one of gaming’s greatest success stories. Released by Mojang in 2011 and acquired by Microsoft in 2014, it has since become a global phenomenon. By October 2023, Minecraft had sold 300 million copies, cementing its place as the best-selling video game of all time, with 126 million monthly active players.
The game’s charm lies in its freedom and creativity. Players can roam a sprawling 3D pixelated world, collecting blocks, building, battling, and collaborating with others. Its modes cater to different playstyles: Survival, which emphasises resource gathering and combat, and Creative, where infinite resources allow for uninhibited construction.
The meme became reality
At first, many people thought that the Minecraft server was just a meme and this is reflected in the comment section, but Ferenc Gyurcsány’s viewers didn’t give up and kept asking the politician to create the server until they finally got him to do it.
True to his word, the politician known for his jovial social media presence officially launched the server on a Saturday. “A promise is a promise,” said Gyurcsány, admitting he hadn’t expected such overwhelming enthusiasm for the game. The server’s IP address was shared on Discord, allowing eager fans to join.
However, demand quickly outstripped expectations. According to Index, the server’s capacity of 300 players was woefully inadequate, with countless fans trying, and failing, to gain access. Those lucky enough to connect experienced significant glitches, and within hours, the system crashed entirely.
Gyurcsány took the chaos in stride, responding with his trademark humour. He joked that even his nine-year-old son, Marci, was surprised by the overwhelming community response. The server’s collapse, he quipped, was more a testament to the project’s success than a failure. Signing off with his now-iconic “Ciao dolores!” he underscored that the initiative was always meant to be a light-hearted gesture of community fun.
Politicians on social media
Far from being a simple gimmick, this playful move illustrates how politicians can creatively engage with social media. Gyurcsány’s Minecraft venture demonstrates the power of direct interaction on modern platforms, highlighting new avenues for connecting with audiences. By stepping into the virtual world, even through a game, he showed that politics and community engagement can go hand in hand—sometimes with unexpected and delightful results.
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Orbán warns of risks during Trump transition, advocates for peace in Ukraine at Diaspora Council reception
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a reception to members of the Diaspora Council attending a meeting in Budapest, the PM’s press chief, Bertalan Havasi, said on Wednesday.
Regarding world politics, Orbán told participants that while the election of Donald Trump had ended progressive-liberal government in the US, the two months until he is inaugurated “will hold a lot of insecurity in the US and Europe, and that may be a source of enormous risks.”
“Those on the side of war still haven’t acknowledged the new reality. We must do everything in our power against an escalation of the war in Ukraine — a ceasefire and peace talks have never been more important than now,” Orbán said.
“That is all the more important” because the Hungarian government has prepared a “peace budget” to help its new economic policy to succeed, he said. “Based on that [budget], people and companies may look into the future more positively,” he added.
Szijjártó: Hungary-US ties could enter ‘new dimension’ during Trump presidency
Hungarian-American ties will enter “a new dimension”, a kind of “golden age”, with the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said speaking at a business forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Budapest on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjártó said Hungary-US ties had reached a “low point” in recent years. With the re-establishment of mutual respect, there could be a “great advance” in bilateral relations, he added.
He pointed to the impact of sanctions policies on the European economy, arguing that they had hurt Europe more than the Russians, and said an end to the war in Ukraine would be in Europe’s best interest.
“Many among us hoped for big change thanks to American voters and victory by the pro-peace candidate….We’re very pleased with the outcome,” he added.
He augured big geopolitical changes as a result of Trump’s win, impacting US ties with the EU and Hungary, too. He said partners in the European Union would have to face “a new reality” and grasp that a protracted war would cause the situations of Ukraine and the EU to worsen further. There is no solution for the conflict on the battlefield, he added.
He said that the remaining two months of the Biden presidency were “extraordinarily dangerous” and warned that the pro-war side would work “to make achieving peace more difficult or practically impossible”.
Szijjártó said Hungary would not support new EU sanctions extending to Russia’s energy sector.
Szijjártó noted that some 1,200 US-owned companies in Hungary employed several hundred thousand people. Agreements have been reached with US-owned companies recently on investments with a value of several billion dollars, he added.
Orbán: Most dangerous two months of war ahead
The two most dangerous months of the war in Ukraine lie ahead, Orbán said, noting that he has convened the country’s Defence Council in light of “alarming news”.
“The threat of escalation and the expansion of the war is greater than ever,” Orbán said in a video posted on his social media page after being briefed at a meeting of the Defence Council.
He said Donald Trump’s impending presidency had made the prospect of peace, or at least a ceasefire, tangible. But a pro-war US administration was “still in power” and would remain so for the next two months, he added.
“In practice this means that Ukrainians fired long-range missiles into Russian territory on Tuesday, and Russia responded by adopting a stricter nuclear doctrine,” Orbán said.
The prime minister said that in the next few weeks and months Hungary must draw on “all its knowledge and diplomatic experience” in order to “stay out of this war”.
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Orbán convenes defence council amid escalating Ukraine war and nuclear threats
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán convened a meeting of the Defence Council in view of the latest developments of the war in Ukraine, and the increased threat of escalation, the PM’s press chief said.
Orbán, the heads and state secretaries of the relevant ministries, the PM’s national security advisor and the commander of the Hungarian Armed Forces will review the situation after the US decision to allow in-depth attacks on Russian soil with weapons delivered by the US, Bertalan Havasi said.
They will also assess Moscow’s decision to expand the list of threats to which Russia will potentially respond with nuclear weapons, he said.
Fidesz marks 1,000th day of the war in Ukraine
“We Transcarpathian Hungarians are hoping for a better Hungarian and Transcarpathian future, no matter how dark the times are,” Fidesz MEP Viktória Ferenc said in Brussels on Tuesday, marking the 1,000th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Addressing the 9th Transcarpathia Day at the Liszt Institute, Ferenc said the war had shaken the whole of Europe and inspired many forms of solidarity. Hungary is staging the largest humanitarian action of its history to provide aid, she said.
Ferenc said Hungarians living in Transcarpathia were suffering from the terrors of the war even as they were also being stripped of their acquired rights as an ethnic minority. “However, the war and the restriction of their rights … are making the community more resilient and stronger,” she said.
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Hungarian Defence Minister: Diplomacy ‘only solution’ to end war
Diplomacy is the only solution to end the war in Ukraine, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Tuesday after a meeting of European Union defence ministers in Brussels.
Defence Minister talks about the war in Ukraine
Szalay-Bobrovniczky said Hungary was still being attacked for its “pro-peace” stance calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks. He also called for a strategic debate “as the approach employed so far is not working. Despite weapon deliveries and other military support, the front is moving increasingly swiftly to the west rather than withdrawing towards the east,” he said.
The result of the US presidential election may bring “definitive change to policy” and a pro-peace approach, he said.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the war was threatening with escalation “any day”.
“As long as there is armed conflict, events can get out of control.”
Measures such as moving the EU training of Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine, and member states allowing the country to use weapons delivered by them on Russian territory could also threaten with escalation, he said.
Regarding a recent cyber-attack on Hungary’s National Defence Purchase Agency (VBU), the minister said an international team of hackers had stolen data from the company for financial gain. The attack was not perpetrated by a foreign secret service, he said. VBU is a company conducting purchases, and its servers “are not, were not and never will be” connected to the system of the Hungarian Armed Forces or the Defence Ministry, he said.
“The stolen data may violate business confidentiality but does not threaten national security,” he said.
“After the incident, we have filed a police report, strengthened cyber-protection and information-security procedures and are closely monitoring the case,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.
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Orbán cabinet: Relations between Hungary and the UK to further strengthen
Cooperation in agriculture and trade must be further strengthened between Hungary and the UK, the minister of agriculture said in London on Tuesday.
Agriculture and trade relations between Hungary and the UK
István Nagy met Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner and Alistair Carmichael, the chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, the ministry said in a statement. After the talks, Nagy said that despite the challenges affecting agriculture, Europe must be able to provide healthy food for its residents and maintain its role in global food supplies.
Nagy briefed Zeichner on the Hungarian EU presidency’s agriculture-related goals, and said that reducing food waste was one of the presidency’s priorities. Hungary set up a scheme in 2016 which has resulted in a more than 25 percent cut in food waste per person over 8 years, he added.
He said there was room for further cooperation in R and I and D, and in trade. The UK has remained a valuable market for Hungarian premium foodstuff, bottled wine, fruit, vegetables and animal feed, he added.
At talks with Carmichael, Nagy said Hungary was committed to promoting farmer-focused agrarian policies and competitive, crisis-proof, sustainable and knowledge-based agriculture for the future.
The Hungarian agrarian support system reflected social demand for making the environment better, for instance by further improving soil structures, he said. “Farming is not just work but a way of life which is also taken into consideration in legal regulations,” he said. All efforts must be made to strengthen safe food supplies and maintain a liveable rural environment, he added.
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Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó: More people in Europe becoming reasonable about illegal migration
While more and more in Europe are discussing illegal migration with the voice of reason, it is clear that the “Brussels elite” continues to support migration and is trying to put pressure on member states, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Szijjártó meets with Morten Messerschmidt
Budapest and Copenhagen share a number of positions concerning illegal migration, “the gravest security challenge facing Europe”, Szijjártó said after talks with the leader of the Danish People’s Party and Denmark’s immigration minister.
“There’s been an intense debate about this in the Western world for 9-10 years now,” Szijjártó said. “It’s clear that some elections are even decided by the issue of migration,” he added, noting that immigration had been a key issue in the US presidential election campaign, “and it was won by the candidate who put his country’s security first and spoke clearly about the dangers of illegal immigration”.
Szijjártó said that the deterioration of Europe’s security situation was clearly linked to “the emergence of mass migrant waves”.
Noting Hungary’s opposition to migration, he said there was “no question in Hungary that the security of the Hungarian people is the number one consideration”.
He noted that the Hungarian government has spent more than 2 billion euros on the protection of the country’s southern border over the last nine years, thwarting some 630,000 illegal entry attempts.
Had Hungary not done this and instead “given in to Brussels, there would be hundreds of thousands or millions more illegal migrants in Europe today”, and Hungarians, too, would have to be living together with them, the minister said.
“We Hungarians consider it outrageous that that while we’re protecting the European Union’s external borders, our own security and that of and Europeans, we’re ordered to pay a million euros a day to Brussels as a financial sanction,” he said, referring to a fine the EU court instructed Hungary to pay for refusing to implement several of the bloc’s migration rules.
“Were it up to Brussels and Hungarian opposition politicians supporting Brussels, Hungary would be flooded by illegal migrants,” Szijjártó said, insisting that Brussels wanted to “install a puppet government in Hungary” so that illegal migrants could enter the country.
He praised Denmark’s “rational migration policy”, underlining that the two countries were in agreement on the need to bolster the protection of the EU’s external borders.
Szijjártó urged the launch of major development schemes in migrant-sending African countries with a view to eliminating the root causes of migration.
“Economic, health-care and education development schemes are needed, because Africa’s population is projected to increase by almost a billion in the next 20-25 years,” he said.
He noted that Hungary has spent more than half a billion euros on developments in Africa over the past five years and offers higher-education scholarships to 1,835 African students each year.
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Finance Minister Varga flags continued tax relief
Finance Minister Mihály Varga said tax relief was set to continue next year at a conference organised by the National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) on Tuesday.
Varga talks about tax relief
Varga said Hungary’s tax system was “moving in the right direction” and was among the most competitive in the world. He added that the tax system was an important part of competitiveness, the focus of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The government’s policy of cutting taxes, declared in 2010, has significantly reduced the tax burden, while Hungary has undertaken one of the biggest crackdowns on tax evasion in the EU, he said. Hungary’s VAT gap has been reduced by 18 percentage points from 2010 to 4.4pc in 2021, he added.
The number of taxes in Hungary has been cut from 64 to 54, and that number is set to fall further, he said. The rate of tax deductions, as a percentage of GDP, has declined from around 40pc in 2009 to under 35pc, he added.
Varga said the government had practically halved the tax on labour in the 2010s, while putting the stress on consumption-type taxes. The tax wedge for the average single worker has been reduced from 53pc to 41pc, the steepest decline in the EU, he added.
Hungary’s corporate tax rate, at 9pc, is the lowest in the EU, he said.
Touching on tax changes for 2025, he said the 5pc preferential VAT rate on homes would be extended for another two years, while tax allowances for families with children would double. Sectoral taxes on pharmaceutical companies, telecommunications companies and airlines will be phased out, he added.
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Fidesz to modify electoral rules in Hungary – Budapest Mayor Karácsony forms harsh judgement
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, has said ruling Fidesz wanted to boost its own election chances by reducing the number of electoral districts in the capital and thereby diluting the city’s voting weight in parliament relative to its population.
Karácsony accuses Fidesz of seeking to amend election law to favour itself
Fidesz’s proposal would reduce the number of electoral districts in Budapest from 18 to 16, a statement from Karácsony’s office said on Tuesday.
“What’s more, they want to shove this down the throats of lawmakers with a sneaky committee amendment, without even allowing a regular parliamentary debate,” Karácsony said. “This is their way of taking revenge on the capital for [the majority of the electorate] voting against the government last time. If they keep this up, an even larger share of the electorate will vote against them next time.”
Alexandra Szentkirályi, the head of Fidesz’s Budapest chapter, said Karácsony was “lying” about the proposed amendment, arguing that legislators had a duty to make changes to the electoral districts to reflect their changing populations.
In a Facebook post, Szentkirályi insisted that because Karácsony is an “experienced sociologist and polltaker”, he was “deliberately twisting the truth … rather than simply being uninformed”.
“He falsely claims that the government is reducing the number of electoral districts in Budapest as punishment because Budapest residents didn’t vote for Fidesz,” Szentkirályi said.
She said the capital’s population had grown under the administration of former mayor István Tarlós before shrinking by about 66,000 during Karacsony’s first term between 2019 and 2024.
She added that this required decision-makers to reapportion the electoral districts accordingly, noting that under the law, they have to have similar populations.
László Sebián-Petrovszki, the party director of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), said after a meeting of parliament’s judiciary committee that Fidesz KDNP submitted a 65-page proposal aiming to redraw electroral district lines in Budapest and a few counties. He called it “outrageous” that the proposal was submitted “without any consultation or professional groundwork”.
He pointed to Budapest’s 11th district as an example, which would be divided into four electoral districts.
Several points of the proposal would have practical disadvantages for the voters, Sebián-Petrovszki said. The ballots would be cast without envelopes, “which could lead to irregularities,” he added.
Regarding the re-drawing of electoral maps in counties, Sebián-Petrovszki said the steep population decline in Somogy County could warrant measures. At the same time, “the proposal also features a complete revamp of Fejár and Csongrád-Csanád counties,” he said.
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- Hungarian opposition DK to nominate own candidates in all 106 individual constituencies in 2026
- Fidesz confident they will win Hungarian elections in 2026
Featured image: depositphotos.com
Hungary hosts European SME Assembly in Budapest
Budapest is hosting the European SME Assembly, a high-level political and professional forum for discussing current challenges and trends, and one of the tools for implementing the European Union’s SME Strategy, in the framework of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU.
SME Assembly in Budapest
Addressing the assembly on Tuesday, National Economy Minister Márton Nagy pointed to the need to temporarily ease the EU’s fiscal regulations and channel more resources to the digital and green transitions. He pointed to the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal adopted at an EU summit in Budapest earlier in November, and said that the Draghi and Letta reports had warned the EU would fall behind China and the US in the global competition if fiscal rules weren’t loosened and more money wasn’t ploughed into the digital and green transitions.
Nagy said the current Maastricht criteria “significantly restricted” member states’ room for fiscal manoeuvre. He added that fiscal deficits relative to GDP had averaged 9pc in the US and 7.6pc in China in recent years, while the gap was 4.5pc in the EU.
He blamed the EU’s “prudent” fiscal policy for the widening innovation gap between the EU and the US and China.
Nagy said the EU’s competitiveness problems were also evident on the electric vehicle market, with the share of EV sales among new vehicle registrations reaching 15pc in Germany and 20pc in France, well under the 30pc rate in China.
He added that Hungary’s government was tapping significant resources to support the green transition.
Hubert Gambs, the European Commission‘s deputy head for the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said proposals made at the meeting in Budapest could contribute to the drafting of the EC’s new single market strategy set to be unveiled in the summer of 2025.
At a press conference at the event, state secretary for SMEs Richard Szabados said nine companies, earlier winners of funding, had been showcased at the assembly, while the activities of local business development agencies were presented.
He added that sustainable operation of SMEs, developing the defence industry, boosting management skills, digital coalitions, business development clusters, and artificial intelligence in R+D+I were topics discussed at the assembly.
Szabados said the 500-600 participants got a chance to see local examples of businesses run by women and fintech companies on Monday.
He highlighted the need for economic policy to encourage corporate investments and for SMEs to have access to financing.
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Hungarian government presses for effective steps against imports of fake honey in Brussels
Agriculture Minister István Nagy called for effective measures to counter imports of fake honey after a meeting of his European Union peers in Brussels on Monday.
Effective measures against fake honey
At a press conference after the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, Nagy said honey needed to be designated natural or artificial, while local beekeepers, at a competitive disadvantage, required more support. He added that Bulgaria and Romania had asked for protective measures to counter an increase in imports of Ukrainian honey that were depressing the prices of locally-made products.
Nagy said positions on fishing opportunities for 2025 discussed at the meeting were still “far apart” and augured “tough negotiations” ahead.
Nagy said that Ukrainian Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval had participated at the meeting and reported that 88pc of Ukrainian grain exports were now being shipped by sea, but highlighted the risks posed by Russian missile attacks on Odessa.
Nagy noted that the so-called Autonomous Trade Measures, involving the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU, were set to expire in June 2025 and pointed to the importance of future agreements on trade of farm products.
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Hungarian EU enlargement commissioner: Ten years of enlargement advances achieved in a single term
Oliver Várhelyi, the EU enlargement commissioner, said in Brussels on Monday that European Union integration, a priority of the Hungarian presidency, had advanced by ten years in a single term.
Várhelyi talks about EU enlargement
Briefing the European Parliament‘s foreign affairs committee, he called enlargement a down payment on the bloc’s future peace and economic prosperity.
In 2020 enlargement policy was revised to ensure procedures were made faster and more credible, with the rule of law placed at the centre of the accession process, he said.
He mentioned investments in connectivity, transport, digital energy and infrastructure and the mobilisation of private capital as potential advantages for aspiring members.
The past five years, he added, had seen a large proportion of EU investment plans made in connection with the Western Balkans and the Eastern and Southern regions.
Várhelyi said Serbia must speed up reforms and focus on the rule of law while seeking to normalise relations with Kosovo. Further, Belgrade must align itself with the EU’s foreign policy goals, adding that there was evidence, such as its “significant support” for Ukraine, that the country was oriented towards the EU.
Meanwhile, holders of a Kosovo passport are able to travel visa-free to the EU, he noted. Kosovo leaders, he added, must do more to win cross-party support for the implementation of reform and to ensure free speech.
Regarding Moldova, he noted the Oct 20 constitutional referendum with which the country opted to join the EU. Russia, he added, had mounted a “hybrid campaign” before the vote.
Turning to Ukraine, he said Kyiv should carry on working to curb systemic corruption, fight organised crime and protect minority rights.
Georgia’s accession negotiations have been suspended but hopefully they would soon continue, he said. If Tbilisi responded to EU concerns, the sides may resume talks, he added.
The commissioner referred to Turkiye as “an important partner” with which the EU maintained “good and fruitful” ties, even if accession talks had stalled.
The EU and Ankara were gradually deepening relations, and notwithstanding several problems in the relationship, “the constructive approach has led to results”, he said, also referring to cooperation on deterring migration and dialogue on the rule of law and democracy.
He said the EU also regarded reconciliation with Cyprus as an important matter, and he welcomed an improvement in Greece-Turkiye ties.
Ruling Fidesz MEP Viktória Ferenc during the ensuing debate noted the importance of the protection of minorities in Ukraine. Whereas legal protections for Transcarpathian Hungarians were now a part of Ukraine’s EU accession process, the full legal restoration of their minority rights was yet to take place, she added.
Opposition Tisza Party MEP Eszter Lakos asked Várhelyi what he saw as his enlargement policy legacy in the Western Balkans, questioning whether countries there found the enlargement process credible.
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Orbán cabinet: Improving competitiveness cornerstone of Hungary’s EU presidency
The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union will continue to make every effort to improve competitiveness, in addition to the results achieved so far with regard to that priority, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said at a meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday.
Varga’s thoughts on Hungary’s EU presidency
Varga highlighted the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal adopted at an EU summit in Budapest earlier in November. He also pointed to the need for lower energy prices and a reduction in the VAT burdens of businesses.
Varga said it was an “illusion” to believe that achieving green targets would resolve energy dependency. The EU needs to function and to compete in the process of making the green transition, too, he added.
He said the adoption of the VAT in the digital age package of regulations was another important achievement of Hungary’s EU presidency. The compromise reached on the matter requires businesses to complete their VAT registration in just one member state to do business across the EU, he added.
Varga also underscored the agreement between the Council and the EP reached on the 2025 EU budget.
Varga noted that in addition to improving the EU’s competitiveness, Hungary’s EU presidency made priorities of addressing demographic challenges, cohesion policy, advancing the enlargement process, strengthening security and defence, cracking down on illegal migration and adopting a farmer-friendly agriculture policy.
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